A final-year B. Tech student from Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, Surender, who allegedly had been harassing a woman and her family by posting visuals of her private moments online, landed behind bars here.

The Cyber Crime unit of the Crime Investigation Department picked him up three days ago from his home town of Mahboobabad in Warangal district, brought him to Hyderabad for questioning, and arrested him after gathering evidence. The victim, who joined the engineering programme in IIT, Kanpur, a year ago, too, hails from Mahboobabad.

The woman’s father, a doctor, contacted Surender for guidance, when his daughter got admission in IIT. “Surender used to come to Kanpur to help her purchase books, prepare notes, and thus became close to her. But he had a grudge against the woman as she turned down his marriage proposal,” CID Additional SP, U. Rammohan, said.

A few months ago, he allegedly took her to the office of Arya Samaaj in Kanpur without disclosing his clandestine plan to marry her. When the woman refused in the last minute, the Arya Samaaj personnel called in the police. He was then arrested.

Later, he began sending threatening emails and text messages on the phone to her. A case in this regard was registered by the Mahboobabad police. He was arrested in this case, too. After coming out on bail, Surender allegedly continued to make threatening calls to her.

Private video

“He had uploaded visuals of the private moments of the student, which he had earlier recorded secretly, onto the Internet, and circulated the details among her friends,” Mr. Rammohan said. Surender also created a fake account of her elder sister in a social website.

Describing her as a call girl, he gave the mobile phone number of her mother in the profile, subjecting the family to trauma, the Additional SP said. Based on a complaint lodged by the family head, the CID sleuths traced the Internet Protocol address, and found that the visuals were uploaded by Surender.

A case under the provisions of the Information Technology Act and Sections 507 (criminal intimidation by anonymous communication) and 509 (word, gesture, or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code was registered against him.