The Mumbai Police Crime Branch have arrested a 20-year-old college student for allegedly morphing the faces of teenage girls onto pornographic videos and using them to blackmail the victims into submission. Officers said that the accused has confessed to having targetted at least three girls till date.
According to Crime Branch officers, inquiries were initiated into the matter after the victim, a 17-year-old girl staying in Mumbai, approached the LT Marg police on October 9 this year. The victim, in her statement, said that an unknown person sent her an obscene video on Instagram, in which her face had been morphed on the body of one of the participants.
“The accused told the victim that he would circulate the video on all social media platforms unless she did his bidding. He then made her record intimate videos of herself and send them to him on Snapchat. He was using several accounts with made-up display names at the same time. The victim finally narrated her ordeal to her father, after which the family registered a complaint,” a Crime Branch officer said.
The LT Marg police registered an FIR against unidentified persons and the Crime Branch Unit II was instructed to conduct parallel inquiries into the case. Unit II officers tried identifying the cell phone number through which the Snapchat accounts were being operated, but soon found out that the handset did not have a SIM card at all.
“We then traced the WiFi networks using which the accounts were being operated and identified one network which was used the most. Suspecting that this might either be the residence or the workplace of the accused, we sent a team to the location and picked up the accused from his Mazagon residence on Wednesday,” the officer said.
The accused, identified as Akshat Doshi, was taken into custody and his cell phone examined, after which the Unit II found the Snapchat accounts in his phone. Confronted with the evidence, Mr. Doshi allegedly broke down and confessed to the crime.
“Akshat is a Third Year B Com (TYBCom) student of the Hinduja college. Apart from the victim in this case, he has also confessed to having similarly targeted two other girls in the past,” the officer said.
He has bee handed over to the LT Marg police for further inquiries, and is now being interrogated about his past crimes, officers said.
