A 21-year-old woman was shocked on finding herself at the centre of unwanted attention after an Internet user mistakenly identified her as the recently deceased New Delhi rape victim in a photograph-supported post he uploaded on a popular social networking site.
The State police, who received a complaint from the woman’s father on Wednesday, said so far at least two lakh subscribers of the same service had viewed the post, causing distress to the woman and her family.
The police said the graduate hailing from Central Kerala had the same name a leading English language newspaper published as that of the rape victim.
Investigators said another subscriber to the same networking service, who was yet to be identified, had possibly searched for the rape victim’s purported name on the Internet and chanced upon the woman’s image, who also subscribed to the social networking service where she had posted her photograph.
In a post seeking to sympathise with the rape victim, the account holder widely disseminated the unsuspecting woman’s image as that of the hapless rape victim.
The investigators of the State High Tech Enquiry Cell have served notice to the U.S.-based authorities of the popular social networking service to part with the account holder’s details, including the IP address used to create the controversial post.
The police said the photograph on the post carried a “rest in peace” message.The police have registered a case of spreading false and malicious messages under Section 66 (a) of the Information Technology Act.
