Thane: The Thane District and Sessions Court has sentenced a 28-year-old man to five years of rigorous imprisonment for using fake social media accounts to send obscene messages, photographs and videos to minor girls and harass them.District and Sessions Judge Dr Anita Nevse sentenced Mangesh Tambe, a resident of Uttan, to five years’ rigorous imprisonment and fined him ₹50,000 under Section 67A of the Information Technology Act. He was also sentenced to three years’ rigorous imprisonment and fined ₹10,000 under Section 354A of the IPC. The court directed that the fines be paid to the victims as compensation.The court said failure to pay the ₹50,000 fine under the IT Act would attract an additional six months’ imprisonment.According to the prosecution, Tambe committed the offences between December 2017 and March 2018. He created a fake social media profile in the name of “Vidya” and sent a friend request to the complainant, who accepted it believing the account belonged to a girl.Following initial conversations, Tambe subsequently started sending her obscene photographs. The startled complainant got suspicious of his identity and then made a video call only to discover that the person chatting with her using a pseudo name was a man, following which she panicked and instantly blocked him.The prosecution said Tambe got upset by this and then created another fake account using the complainant’s name and sent obscene messages, photographs and videos to her minor cousin sister and her female friends. He also allegedly threatened them and attempted to sexually exploit them.Unable to take the harassment for long, the complainant approached Sagari Uttan Police Station, which registered a case under the IPC, POCSO Act and Information Technology Act and arrested Tambe.During the trial, Assistant Public Prosecutor Bhamre-Patil examined nine key witnesses and presented adequate digital and documentary evidence. The court found Tambe guilty on the basis of the evidence and witness statements.
