The Powai police have arrested an IT professional for defaming a reputed adman Sudarshan Banerjee on social media through fake accounts.
The Powai police have arrested an IT professional for defaming a reputed adman Sudarshan Banerjee on social media through fake accounts. Banerjee, was accused of sexual harassment amid the #MeToo movement. The arrest was made late on Sunday evening with the help of technical evidence, after which the accused identified as Utkarsh Mehta (27) revealed he made fake accounts in the name of his female friends who were sexually harassed by the adman.
In October 2018, when the #MeToo movement was catching everyone's eyeballs and was making headlines, four social media posts made by anonymous users had surfaced, outlining their experience of working with Banerjee. In these posts, the anonymous account holders, all former employees of Banerjee's company, Utopia Communications, had accused him of sexual harassment. Moreover, these posts were shared with the electronic and social media by one of Banerjee's rivals, which maligned the adman and his company's image, said advocate Anirban Roy.
When Banerjee approached police in October, the cops registered a non-cognisable complaint and refused to file a First Information Report (FIR). Since Banerjee’s image was maligned in the advertising world, he approached the Andheri Magistrate Court to register an FIR.
On March 6, the Andheri court directed Powai police to register an FIR and begin the investigation. “After a case was registered, we tracked the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the posts made on the social media, which led us to a Thane-based IT professional, who had uploaded the defamatory posts. The accused, Utkarsh Mehta, was arrested on Monday,” said Anil Pophale, senior police inspector of Powai Police station.
During investigation, Mehta revealed he was friends with the women, who were former employees of Banerjee and were sexually harassed by him. Mehta sought justice to his female friends by opening fake social media accounts and posting their alleged ordeals as an imposter, said Pophale. Mehta has been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for conspiracy (section 120B), forgery (section 465), forgery for purpose of harming reputation (section 469), using an electronic document for forgery (section 471) and defamation (section 500) along with relevant sections of the Information Technology (IT) Act.
When contacted Banerjee, he chose to comment through his legal team. Banerjee's advocate Anirban Roy said, “The act of defamation on social media has cost my client huge business losses. Since no major company wanted to be associated with a someone who was embroiled in the #MeToo movement, my client lost business of over Rs 7 crore and more than 40 employees resigned from the company. These allegations were made in bad taste and if the said women had any problems with my client, they were at liberty to approach police or post their ordeals on social media from their own accounts. In this case, Mehta had made two out of four fake accounts and was nowhere related to Utopia Communications. “
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 "One held in Powai for defaming adman in fake #MeToo posts")
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