Mumbai Man Was Tracked Down Through Instagram, Kidnapped, And Sexually Assaulted

Dhir Acharya - Dec 14, 2019

Social platforms like Instagram can be a great place to share about yourself and make friends, but be careful because stalkers are on social media too.

The social network has always brought benefits to people regarding news updates, entertainment, communications, and more. However, it can also be a dangerous place if you’re not careful enough, expose yourself too much, and bad people take advantage of that to do harm to you.

In one of the latest unfortunate incidents, four men kidnapped and sexually assaulted a 22-year-old man in suburban Kurla, Mumbai, India. All the alleged were connected with the victim on Instagram, which they used to track down the victim, according to the police.

The-criminals-were-connected-with-the-victim-on-Instagram-1 — The criminals were connected with the victim on Instagram

The kidnapping happened on Sunday night as the 22-year-old man was near a restaurant. Two of the four alleged men approached the victim on a motorcycle, telling him that they were connected on the social platform. They invited the victim to join them.

The victim agreed then got on the motorcycle, sitting between the two men. When the victim noticed that the vehicle was heading to Vidyavihar, the asked the mean to stop. but he was then taken to a place near the Vidyavihar train station and was forced to sit in a car, in which another man was sitting. Then, the three men sexually assaulted him in the car, as reported by the victim.

The-victim-was-alone-when-two-men-approached-him-2 — The victim was alone when two men approached him

A man joined the alleged and they drove to a gas station nearby to fill the car’s fuel using the victim's credit card, according to the victim. The four men also took Rs 2,000 cash from the victim and dumped him on the side of the road.

Then, the 22YO victim called the police for help, who took him to a hospital. The Mumbi Police registered an FIR under the Indian Penal Code’s Section 377 about unnatural sex. Using CCTV footage, the police managed to track down all the four criminals and arrested them, one of which is a minor and has been taken to a remand facility.

The criminals said that they could find the victim’s location because he took a selfie at the restaurant that he was standing near and posted it on Instagram. The victim also tagged the restaurant in his post.

There are many bad people out there and may be stalking us on social platforms, but probably the first thing we can do to protect ourselves from them is to be careful with everything we share on social media. Next time, don’t be too honest with your online friends, maybe?