The Varanasi police have arrested one Vikas Gupta who was posting on Instagram in the name of Raj Khan. The arrested man has been charged with promoting enmity on the grounds of religion between different people and for actions against national integration and acts that are likely to cause public alarm.
Vikas Gupta has been regularly posting inflammatory material and making objectionable remarks against one community on Instagram.
The Varanasi Crime Branch and police from the Rohaniya branch had been keeping tabs on the account for quite some time before they could ascertain the identity of the user.
The posts made by the youth, under the user name raaj_75185_74111_rajatalab_vsn, had drawn the ire of some rightwing bodies who had gheraoed the police thana in Mohan Sarai, demanding that the offensive posts be taken down.
The police first booked a case against one Raj Khan, son of Kasim Khan, for various aforementioned offences and under relevant provisions of the IT Act. Interrogation of Khan and technical analysis by the cyber and surveillance team led them to Vikas Gupta. Both Khan and Gupta used to supply water to food catering units for weddings and parties. Arguments broke out among them after words were said by both about the other’s relationship with the girls working with them.
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Gupta was careful not to use his own SIM card to open the fake Instagram account in Khan’s name. He instead asked a female friend for her SIM and then created the account through which he started making those inflammatory posts.
This is not an isolated case of misuse of Instagram. In March 2019, a man was arrested in Ambala for making rape threats over the medium while in July 2021, a Delhi-based man was arrested for posting nude pictures of a minor on a fake Instagram account.
