Case : Creating fake profile

State : Andhra Pradesh, India

City : Hyderabad, India

Sections of Law 67 Information Technology Act 2000, 507, 509 of the Indian Penal Code.

Background
The complainant received an obscene e-mail from an unknown e-mail ID. The complainant also noticed that obscene profiles along with photographs of his daughter had been uploaded on matrimonial sites.

Investigation
The investigating officer examined and provided the statements of the complainant and his daughter. The complainant stated that his daughter was divorced and her husband had developed a grudge against them due to the failure of the marriage. The investigating officer took the original e-mail from the complainant and extracted the IP address of the same. From the IP address he could ascertain the Internet service provider. The IP address was traced to a cable Internet service provider in the city area of Hyderabad. The said IP address was allotted to the former husband sometime back and his house was traced with the help of the staff of ISP. A search warrant was obtained and the house of the accused was searched. During the search operation, a desktop computer and a handicam were seized from the premises. A forensic IT specialist assisted the investigation officer in recovering e-mails (which were sent to the complainant), using a specialized disk search tool as well as photographs (which had been posted on the Internet) from the computer and the handicam respectively. The seized computer and the handicam were sent to the forensic security laboratory for further analysis. The experts of the forensic security laboratory analysed the material and issued a report stating that:
• the hard disk of the seized computer contained text that was identical to that on the obscene e-mail;
• the computer had been used to access the matrimonial websites on which the obscene profiles were posted;
• the computer had been used to access the e-mail account that was used to send the obscene e-mail;
• the handicam seized from the accused contained images identical to the ones posted on the matrimonial Websites.

Based on the report of the FSL it was clearly established that the accused had:
• created a fictitious e-mail ID and had sent the obscene e-mail to the complainant;
• posted the profiles of the victim along with her photographs on the matrimonial sites.