FB suicide arrest & axe

TT, Chennai, June 29: Salem police today arrested a local power loom factory worker for abetting a girl's suicide by posting her morphed pictures on Facebook and suspended their cyber-wing head constable for allegedly forcing her father to pay a bribe to have the snaps taken off the site.

The police said Suresh, 21, had confessed to posting the semi-nude pictures to defame the girl after she spurned his advances.

The 20-year-old chemistry graduate had hanged herself at home in Salem, 380km from here, on Monday, 10 days after the photos were posted twice along with her father's mobile number. The pictures were sent to her cousin's WhatsApp account as well.

Salem SP Amit Kumar Singh said: "He used to live in the same neighbourhood and had befriended her. But when he proposed to her she had turned him down bluntly.

"This provoked him to create a fake FB account in her name from his mobile phone and post morphed photos of her on the FB page."

Suresh has been charged with abetment to suicide, causing dishonour to a woman and various provisions of the IT Act.

The Salem SP said the police had last evening got the Internet protocol address from which the pictures were posted and used it to track down the culprit.

"If only the girl and her parents had been a little patient, we would not have lost a precious life," Singh, who had yesterday apologised to the parents in his personal capacity, rued.

The Salem SP's team is facing grave charges - that they dragged their feet on getting the semi-nude pictures removed and, worse, forced the family to give bribes in cash and kind to speed up action.

Singh said the cyber-wing head constable, Suresh Kumar, had been suspended. Kumar had allegedly demanded Rs 2,000 in cash and a mobile phone from the girl's father when he had first gone to lodge a complaint on June 19.

A departmental inquiry will be held to identify lapses in the way the case had been handled, the SP said.

"We plan to come up with a standard operating procedure while dealing with similar cyber crimes, especially where women are the victims of such foul play."

Kumar could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts. His mobile phone was found to be switched off.