Two persons, including a juvenile, were arrested by the Commissionerate Police on Monday for allegedly circulating lewd MMS of a girl after taking her picture. Five mobile phones and a laptop were seized from their possession.
The accused 16-year-old boy and 29-year-old Soumya Ranjan Sahu of Khadala Sahi under the Pattamundai police limits in Kendrapada district were staying at Haldipadia under the laxmisagar police limits in Bhubaneswar. They were booked under Sections 292 (obscenity), 354 (C) (capture of objectionable photographs of women), Section-6 of the Indecent Representation of Women (prohibition) Act 1986, Sections 66 (E) and 67 of the Information and Technology Act 2000.
According to laxmisagar police station IIC Kishore Chandra Mund, they arrested the culprits acting on the basis of a complaint which was lodged on November 14 by the father of the 23-year-old girl studying in a private college here. The father had alleged that the accused duo was blackmailing his daughter by circulating her nude photos via mobile MMS among her friends.
Mund said the seized articles would be sent to the State Forensic laboratory’s cyber expert to trace more evidence relating to the case providing more information to nab other culprits behind the case.
Sources said main accused Sahu had taken the photographs of the girl one and a half year ago when they were in love. Quoting Sahu’s confession, the police said the photos were leaked by the accused from his laptop accidentally and were later circulated among his friends. Sahu would be forwarded to court here while the juvenile would be produced before the Juvenile Justice Court, Khurda, said Mund.