Man Creates 15 FB and 10 Instagram Accounts to Stalk a News Anchor

A 24-year-old cyber stalked and harassed a news anchor. He created fake social media accounts to harass her.

Gulshan Kashyap, a 24-year-old BSc student from Gurgaon has been arrested for allegedly cyber stalking a media professional.

According to The Times of India, the woman had filled a complaint against Kashyap for creating fake social media profiles and harassing her. She is a news anchor in Delhi.

The complainant first noticed Kashyap’s messages on Twitter on 12 January, 2018. They had a heated argument on Twitter after which she blocked him. He later created multiple fake social media accounts and started harassing her and sending her lewd messages. Despite blocking him every where, he decided to show up at her office, although the security guards stopped him to entering. 

Manoj Pant, SHO Sector 20 Noida to The Times of India

When interrogated, Kashyap said that he had created 15 fake Facebook accounts and 10 fake Instagram accounts to stalk and harass her. He even used a friend’s Facebook account to contact her.

The police has filled an FIR against Kashyap under Sections 354, 507 of the IPC.

Make Stalking a Non-Bailable Offence

The Quint has been running a campaign to make stalking a non-bailable offence since August 2017. The fact that stalking is still a bailable offence in our country allows stalkers to get bail without serious scrutiny. This often puts the survivors at risk of facing acid attacks, rape, and even murder. And that is exactly what happened in this stalking case as well. The accused was out on bail when he went on this killing spree.

Stalking as a separate offence did not exist in the IPC till 2013. This necessarily affects any analysis of the statistics relating to stalking, as the National Crime Records Bureau (“NCRB”) only has statistical data for the years 2014-2016. Despite this, the data available paints an interesting picture of the nature of the crime and the way it is being dealt with in the country.

Also Read : AAP Passes Resolution to Make Stalking Non-Bailable Offence

• In 2014, nearly 4,700 cases of stalking were reported. This jumped to 6,300 in 2015 – a 33% increase. In 2016, nearly 7,200 cases were reported. Given that awareness about the offence is still nascent and society still tends to view stalking as not too serious an offence, such high numbers, with increases every year, indicate how prevalent the crime really is.
• Pendency rates for trials are high. In 2016, 13,449 cases were pending trial for stalking, out of which trial was completed in only 1,534 cases i.e. 11.4%. This leaves a huge backlog of trials to be carried forward into the new year.
• In terms of the number of cases reported each year, only 3% in 2014, 5% in 2015 and 5% in 2016 resulted in convictions. In terms of trials, the conviction rate was 35% in 2014, but dropped to 26% in 2015 and stood at 26.4% in 2016.
• Importantly, the data indicates a lower-than-normal incidence of false cases. The NCRB’s statistics show that of the 9,800 stalking cases investigated by the police in the year, only 215 were found by them to be false. This comes out to be only 2.1% of all cases investigated in the year – which is below the average percentage of false cases per crimes investigated across the country: 2.5%

Also Read : Shashi Tharoor Presents a Private Member’s Bill on Stalking

This is why The Quint has launched a petition along with Varnika Kundu and MP Shashi Tharoor to appeal that Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh make stalking a non-bailable offence. Sign our petition here.