Hussainialam man morphs woman’s Instagram photos, blackmails for money, jailed

Hyderabad: The officials of the Cyber Crime PS in Hyderabad apprehended a person accused of blackmailing women with morphed versions of their photos that he downloaded from their Instagram profiles. The accused has been identified as Manish Verma, a resident of Hussainialam in Hyderabad.

According to the case details, police received a complaint on November 23 that someone was downloading her pictures from her Instagram account, morphing them into nude photos and blackmailing her money through a fake account, claiming that he will upload those photos on porn sites. He was also texting her family and friends.

After being unable to bear the mental stress from the constant harassment and threats, she filed a police complaint.

Soon, a case was registered under sections 67A IT Act and 345(D), 469, 506, and 509 of the IPC. Investigation into the fake Instagram account led the police to Manish Verma who was arrested on Thursday and sent to judicial remand.

The team headed by Inspector Padma, under the direct supervision of ACP, Cyber Crimes and monitoring of Dara Kavitha, DCP, Cyber Crimes have apprehended the accused.

In a similar case, in October, the Cyber Crimes police of Hyderabad arrested a person for selling morphed videos of a woman through X (formerly known as Twitter) handles. The accused has been identified as Bhukya Ramesh, the owner of the @MbRamesh_4005 handle on X.

The SHE Team’s X handle received a complaint about many handles posting morphed images and videos of a girl along with abusive messages. The owners of these handles were demanding Rs 50 to share the videos.

The police warned people that such acts attract various penal sections under the IPC and Information Technology Act. The public has been warned not to create any posts on the Internet which are outrageous, abusive and indecent to women in general and any individuals in specific.