In Byculla, a 25-year-old teacher became the target of defamation when her photo submitted for a loan application on a private app was tampered with. The Byculla police have registered a case against an unidentified individual under various sections of the IT Act, following allegations of tampering and other offenses. The complainant, a teacher residing in Ghogapdev with her family, conducts private classes. In April 2024, she downloaded a loan app from the Google Play Store to seek financial assistance. Despite uploading her mobile number, personal details, and photos of three family members for the loan, she did not receive any funds and subsequently deleted the app from her phone.
On Monday, July 22, while at home, she began receiving threatening messages on WhatsApp from multiple mobile numbers, demanding repayment of a non-existent loan under the threat of defamation. Ignoring the messages, she later received morphed obscene images of herself, based on the photos submitted for the loan application. The unknown sender accompanied these images with lewd messages, warning that unless she repaid the loan, these falsified photos would be circulated on social media. Disturbed by the continuous threats, the woman informed her family, who advised her to report the matter to the police.
Subsequently, she approached the Byculla Police Station and filed a complaint against the unknown perpetrator. Acting on the complaint, the police have initiated an investigation and registered a case under relevant sections of the IT Act. The complainant provided the police with several mobile numbers associated with the threats, prompting authorities to pursue call detail records and other pertinent information to apprehend the accused.