He has it all: a successful business, a gorgeous
house, two smart kids and a beautiful wife. But Harshid Mehta, a 40 year-old
who resides in Ranip, cannot step out of his house fearing embarrassment. A
moment of careless fun five years ago has turned his family's life into a hell.
Nude photographs that he took of his wife are circulating on the internet and
there's little he can do to stop it.
Harshid had clicked the photographs in 2010 on his
personal camera which he lost a while later. He was unaffected by the loss till
he spotted the nude pictures featured on a Facebook porn page titled `Hot and
Sexy Bhabhis and Aunties' two years ago.
When he recovered from the shock of seeing intimate
photographs of his wife out there for the world to see, Harshad registered a
complaint with the Crime Branch Cyber Cell. ACP (Crime Branch) K N Patel said,
“We wrote a letter to FB and they closed the page.“ According to Section 66D of
the IT Act, 2000, making a false social networking profile is a punishable
offence. The culprit can be imprisoned for a term which may extend to three
years and shall also be liable to fine of more than Rs 1 lakh.
However, the cops were unable to catch the culprit as
the page was maintained from outside India.
Unfortunately for the Mehtas, the story does not end
here. A month ago, Harshad received a call from a relative.“A family member
told him about a fake Facebook profile set up under the name of Dipika Shah.
The same nude photographs of his wife had been uploaded on this page. The news
spread like wildfire among his relatives and peers, putting his family's
reputation at stake,“ said Patel.
Harshad once again approached the Crime Branch to
register a compliant. Investigation revealed that the gang is operating outside
Gujarat.
When Mirrorcontacted Harshad, he said, “The incident
has already devastated our lives. We do not want more problems. I have nothing
else to say.“
According to Crime Branch, there are thousands of
fake Facebook profiles created to dupe innocent people. “We get such cases
irrespective of age. Some of them create these accounts for fun, to dupe people
out of their money or for revenge.“
This photo leak underscores the long-term risks for
mobile users as cam eras and smartphones increasingly become repositories for
intimate photographs, as well as sensitive data related to education,
healthcare and banking.
Experts say there is no way to fully scrub the photos
from the Internet and the images could keep popping up in the future, forcing
people to file repeated complaints as they play a cyber-version of the arcade
game `whack-amole'.
Cyber expert Siddharth P Bhatt said, “One should not
keep such photographs in gadgets. If a person takes such apicture, it should be
transferred to a secure, password-protected computer or data card. Even
relatives or friends can steal such photographs or data to fulfil a grudge.“
*Names changed to protect identities
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