20-Year-Old Man Arrested For Hacking Minors' Social Media Accounts & Harassing Them For Nude Pictures

The Mumbai Crime Branch arrested a 20-year-old man from Gujarat for allegedly hacking Instagram accounts of minor girls, cyberstalking, blackmail and child pornography.

Police said that the class XII dropout coerced the victims into sending him their nude pictures and videos.

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According to a report in Times of India, the man has been booked under stringent provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) 2012. Objectionable photos of over 700 girls have been recovered from the accused.

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Alfaz Anwar Ali Zamani, the accused, is a resident of Mahua in Bhavnagar district. Zamani used to hack Instagram and other social media accounts of minor girls and women and used to blackmail them and force them to create obscene videos and photos, the cyber police official said.

Police say they are probing whether the man has sold any photos or videos to porn websites or whether he was planning to do so.

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DCP Rashmi Karandikar told the Times of India that they launched an investigation after receiving complaints from the parents of seven girls on September 4.

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"During the course of interrogation, the accused confessed to hacking social media accounts of girls. The man was operating 17 fake Instagram accounts using name of girls. As per the records seized from his mobile phones, the accused has contacted over 800 girls and got photos of 700 of them. He always targeted minor girls," the report quoted a police officer as saying.

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Alfaaz Jamani was traced to Gujarat and brought to Mumbai where he was produced before a court. He has been remanded in police custody till September 12.

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