A 21-year-old woman from Gujarat was coerced into slashing her wrists by an online ‘friend’ she had befriended on a popular social media platform.
An Instagram ‘friend’ exerted influence on the woman from Shela and allegedly forced her into recording herself naked on video and cutting her wrists. Accused Sahil Satarkar, a resident of Pune, also allegedly extorted money to the tune of Rs 70,000 from her for 10 months. The victim’s mother finally filed a complaint against him at Ahmedabad’s Bopal police station.
1×1 pollsAccording to the complaint, the victim has been suffering from a neurological disorder since childhood and has been staying at home since completing her Class 10.
On December 25, 2023, she left for an eight-day trekking camp in Goa. Four days into the camp, on December 29, her mother got a call from one of the camp coordinators, informing her that her daughter had not returned to the campsite till late in the evening. The same day, around 9pm, the victim called up her mother to inform her that she had safely returned to the camp.
Sensing that something was amiss, the victim’s parents checked on her on December 31 and discovered burn marks on her hands. The victim told her mother that she had gone to meet her Instagram friend Satarkar on December 29 and they spent the entire day together. During that time, she and Satarkar got into an argument, and he allegedly branded her hands using cigarettes.
The FIR states that Satarkar had been allegedly blackmailing her using her obscene video. Satarkar also allegedly forced her to smoke cigarettes during video calls, speak to his friends and disrobe herself whenever asked to, the FIR states.
The victim’s mother said in the FIR that as Satarkar used to extort money from her, she began seeking money from her relatives. One of the relatives told the mother about this and that is when she found out that Satarkar had been blackmailing her.
The complainant claimed her daughter’s mental health had worsened after coming into contact with Satarkar, to the extent that she had to be admitted to a rehabilitation centre.
Bopal police registered a complaint against Sahil Satarkar under Sections 49 (abetment), 78 (stalking), 79 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 115 (voluntarily causing hurt), 294(2)(b) (importing or conveying any obscene object), and 308 (extortion) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and under the Information Technology Act.
Inspector BT Gohil of Bopal police said the accused was yet to be traced.
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