Police in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, have managed to catch a seasonal wrongdoer after he allegedly kidnapped a minor girl. The accused, who is a Class X pass-out, used to pose as a techie employed in an NMC and befriend schoolgirls on social networking sites, only to exploit them later.
Police, today, Thursday, October 19, said that Akash Gupta, aged 21, was traced and arrested after the father of a 16-year-old girl lodged a kidnapping case. A team tracked the social media account of the girl and later based on electronic footprints, rescued her and nabbed the accused, as per a report by IANS.
The accused had met the girl on Instagram by posing as a techie and started messaging her randomly. The girl was impressed by his "credentials" and made friends with him. But soon after, the accused began harassing the girl. He first demanded to meet her and when the girl refused, he began issuing threats of misusing her photos and videos.
The victim's father warned Gupta thrice, but it had no impact on him. On October 17, the girl went to meet him and went missing since then. She was kidnapped and raped by the accused, according to the police.
Krishna Nagar Station House Officer (SHO), Vikram Singh, informed that the accused had a small catering business which was mostly run by his father and Gupta used to support his father. “He used to lure young girls and those who got swayed away in his trap were exploited,” said Singh.
"The accused would threaten them by going viral with their photos on social media," he added, explaining that the bank account of the accused was being scanned to know whether he had taken money from the victims or not, as per IANS.
