Facebook ‘friend’ harasses woman, arrested

“Har ek friend zaroori nahi hota hai” (not every friend is essential), the slogan used by Mumbai Police last year for spreading awareness against cyber crime turned out to be accurate, with the arrest of a 21-year-old youth from Beed district, who allegedly befriended a 21-year-old woman from Mumbai posing as a woman from her elder brother’s Facebook friend list and after tagging her pictures on his fake profile started posting vulgar and obscene comments.

Accused Ravindra Dhas is a resident of Ashti taluka in Beed district and his father is a farmer. Dhas made a fake Facebook profile named “Pari Marathi” to make it appear as a woman’s profile. He, however, did not use any photos. He then randomly sent friend requests to several people including to the 21-year-old complainant woman’s 27-year-old brother, who accepted the friend request even though Dhas was a complete stranger. Dhas then sent a request to the man’s sister. She saw Dhas was her brother’s friend and so accepted the request without asking her brother.

Dhas then tagged some girls from his friend list and posted obscene comments below it. When the complainant’s brother objected to his behaviour, Dhas tagged his sister and started posting similar comments. The brother-sister duo approached the cyber cell, where a FIR was registered in September 2015. Under the guidance of deputy commissioner of police, cyber cell, M. Raj Kumar, the Facebook authorities were contacted and the IP address of Dhas was procured. Police inspector Ravi Sardesai investigating the case sent a special team that nabbed Dhas from his village. After completing HSC, Dhas started helping his father, who had gotten him the mobile phone that he used to commit the crime.