Vishwajeet Joshi

Nashik cybercrime cell

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senior police inspector

As voices speaking up against sexual harassment gather steam, the spotlight is being shone on the numerous ways in which this violence can be perpetrated. And, in an alarming instance showcasing the extent to which such debased behaviour can flourish, a 26-year-old youth has been arrested by thefor harassing as many as 658 women from all over the state, using popular online social networks likeVishwajeet Joshi has been accused of video calling these women while naked and hiding his face — more than 15 of these victims, falling within the age group of 20-35 years old, hail from Pune, and were a handful of the hundreds persecuted by Joshi’s morphed photos and obscene messages.Joshi was apprehended by cops on Tuesday, a day after one of his victims lodged a complaint at the Nashik cybercrime cell. Within 24 hours, police had utilised technical surveillance to trace Joshi down, and moved to arrest him from his Nashik home.The 26-year-old complainant, a student, had received a video call from Joshi via Facebook Messenger last week, and shared that she was shocked to see an unknown, nude man trying to communicate with her. As per her statement, she had already begun receiving obscene messages and photos from a Facebook account in the name of ‘Sonal Shitole’ on May 15.When the complainant blocked this account, the harassment stopped for a mere two days — she then began receiving the same variety of messages and photographs from another profile, this time in the name of ‘Sonal Jamal’. More video calls were also made to her, and a naked man with his face hidden was always the caller.Frightened, the complainant rushed to the local cybercrime cell. As sleuths there launched a probe, they uncovered that the accused had created up to 20 fake Facebook accounts under different women’s names. His modus operandi seemed appallingly simple — initially, he would communicate in decent and sober language with his victims, and then suddenly switch to obscene chats.Sharing case information with Mirror,Devraj Borse of the Nashik cybercrime cell said, “Joshi belongs to a middle class family — his father is a retired serviceman, his elder brother an engineer and his mother a housewife, while he had finished studying his Bachelor’s in Computer Application (BCA). When we arrested him, we also recovered one laptop, one mobile phone and a SIM card used by him to send objectionable material to victims. Our investigation found that he had created at least 20 Facebook accounts citing various girls’ names, to send explicit images and texts to 658 women all over Maharashtra. We have booked him under sections 354 (outraging modesty) and 354 D (stalking) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), as well as section 67 A (publishing/transmitting sexually explicit material) of the Information Technology (IT) Act.”During his interrogation, Joshi further disclosed that he used to surf profiles on Facebook by searching for random women’s names, and then save their display pictures. Later, he would morph these faces onto pornographic images from his mobile phone.Mirror also contacted a few of Joshi’s victims from Pune, all of whom seemed to have faced a similar and disturbingly innocuous method of harassment. One 22-year-old college student shared, “Earlier this month, I received a friend request from a girl named Sonal. Since it was a girl’s account and she seemed to have normal, decent pictures on her timeline, I accepted. But, just three or four days later, whoever was behind that fake profile started sending me dirty photographs of a couple. Obscene messages were also sent, and when I stop responding, he asked for my mobile number. That was when I blocked him.”Another 26-year-old victim, who used to work at a private company in the city, said, “I received a friend request from a girl named Minakshi. Just two days after confirming it, this person started incessantly calling me on Facebook Messenger. I was busy at work and could not answer any calls, but later, I saw vulgar messages and photographs. I stopped entertain him and blocked the person.”A21year-old student informed, “I was shocked when I started receiving morphed photos and abusive messages from a Facebook account this month. Once, when I was travelling home, I got a video call — when a naked man showed up on screen, I panicked, cut the call and managed to block him.”Borse added, “Vishwajeet was jobless — he would sit the whole day on Facebook and chat with or make video calls to women. For now, we have produced him before the court, which has remanded him in police custody till May 25.”The Nashik cybercrime cell will be also checking with the Pune counterparts about how many women have filed a complaint against Joshi here.█ Joshi belongs to a middle class family... he was jobless and would sit the whole day on Facebook and chat with or make video calls to women