Background A written complaint was
submitted by the complainant stating that she had been receiving
obscene phone calls on her mobile and landline numbers. The
complainant learnt from the callers that a doctored profile of hers
had been posted on a Website. The profile stated that the
complainant loved sex and when the viewers were in Bangalore, they
should contact her. The profile also gave out victim’s
landline and mobile phone numbers.
Investigation The investigating officer (IO) attempted to
trace the culprit by using a different e-mail ID on a chat site,
when the perpetrator of the crime was online. However, IO was
unsuccessful in obtaining the IP address of the perpetrator’s
computer system as his system was protected by a firewall.
Subsequently, the IO posted a mobile number, pretending to be a
young girl wanting to make friends. The same day, the perpetrator
contacted the investigating officer on his mobile phone.
Accordingly the investigating officer was able to identify the
perpetrator’s mobile number. The investigating officer
obtained call details of the perpetrator’s number from the
cellular service provider and observed that the most frequent
incoming and outgoing calls were from two other mobile numbers. The
investigating officer also obtained the IMEI addresses for these
numbers from the mobile service provider. The investigating officer
sent out letters to the Website on which the obscene profile of the
complainant had been hosted to obtain details of the date, time of
the profile creation, the IP address used for the creation, the
access details for the profile and any other details that the
Website would be able to provide regarding the profile and the
e-mail ID. The investigating officer then contacted the outlet from
where the mobile connection had been purchased and learnt that one
of the SIM cards used was a demo card which had been issued to a
dealership. Upon further investigation it was found that the other
SIM card was allotted to a college student and was being used by
his friend. The investigating officer got suspicious and on further
enquiry found that the college student was of dubious character.
The investigating officer obtained a search warrant and raided the
residence of the college student. Using disk imaging and analysis
tools, the team recovered the obscene profile that was posted on
the Internet from the student’s computer. The partners of the
accused were also examined in the presence of the complainant. The
accused admitted that he was guilty. It later transpired that the
college student was a close family friend of the complainant and
that he was suffering from a personality disorder, secondary
depression and poor self-esteem.
Current status The case has been finalized and a report of
class “B” has been submitted.
Case Studies 
