Cyber crimes see an increase in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: She Teams and Cyber Crime departments of Hyderabad and Cyberabad police have recorded an increase in the number of cases of cyber stalking, abusive emails and social media related crimes this year. A large number of victims have been young women. 

According to the officials at She Teams and cyber crimes, at least four to five cases come up every month reported by women victims.

Most of the complaints are about character defamation of women on the popular social media platform, Facebook. A majority of the suspects are jilted lovers, acquaintances and are people known to the victims. In a few cases, even former and present husbands were arrested.

These men refuse to take no for an answer, get outraged and do not think twice before going to any extent to harm the victims. Among numerous cases of men harassing women in the city, the ones where jilted lovers take to social media platforms to defame women, are the ones on the rise, She Teams police said.

In one such bizarre case of stalking, Kotha Naga Srinivasa Kalyan Chakravarthi, a 33-year-old man from Punjagutta, was arrested by the Cyber Crime Police of Rachakonda for stalking, sending nude photos and abusive texts to his own wife after she complained against him for domestic violence. She moved in with her parents following the complaint.

“Since his wife refused to return home, he filed a conjugal case in the Family Court of Vijayawada. A counter case of domestic violence was filed against him by the victim at the Family Court in LB Nagar, Hyderabad, in the month of July. To take revenge on his wife and her family for filing a case against him, he sent abusive and vulgar messages over WhatsApp and also sent nude photos. He threatened the victim and her family with dire consequences,” the officials added.

“The offender opens a Facebook account using a photograph and details of the woman victim and uploads obscene content and forwards the same to the relatives and friends of the victim to defame her,” Chand Pasha, Police Inspector of Social Media and hacking unit of CCS Hyderabad said.

The offenders are booked under Section 354 (D) of IPC, which gives them a jail time of three years, but as it is a bailable offence, they come out easily, a lawyer from Hyderabad said.

Explaining the process and ways to punish such men, a senior official from She Teams said, “The victims can either approach She Team officials via their emergency helpline number or they can dial 100, after which the control room directs their call to the specified departments. She Teams, after identifying the offender, hands them over to the concerned police station or Cyber Crime Cell, depending on the offence, to take necessary action.”