An assistant professor at Indira Gandhi National Open University has alleged that one of her former students Sukhwinder Singh has been stalking her for the last two years. She finally decided to file a complaint against him.
This person named Sukhwinder Singh has been stalking her since the time she conducted three sessions in the School of Agriculture, IGNOU. Thereafter Sukhwinder Singh has been stalking her through emails. These emails had obscene, offending and malicious content that led to her mental torture and agony. She also warned the students many times but all her efforts were going in vain.
After stalking her for nine months Sukhwinder Singh gave an undertaking in writing to the director of the school of Agriculture in August 2016 that he would not repeat this act and also accepted that he had sent all the objectionable, abusing emails. He even promised to not repeat the same.
But the situation got even worse after that. Sukhwinder Singh created a fake Facebook account in her name which had all her photographs that were the screenshots of the teleconferences she took part in. Besides this, he also started communicating with her friends and maligning her reputation among them.
Finally, the accused person Sukhwinder Singh is in the custody and the investigation officer has stated that a charge sheet has been filed against him. He is still in the custody as no one has come forward for his bail.
Sometimes stalking by the students reach to such an extent that even teachers are forced to resign. One such case took place in Agra where a teacher at a senior secondary school was forced to resign after her student in Class X stalked and harassed her. He was so obsessed with her that he even managed to barge into her house and tried to grope her.
The Internet has both pros and cons for us. Although it provides us the privilege of staying anonymous but breaching law could attract attention.
Prashant Mali, advocate and cyber law expert stated that If the photo is morphed without the permission of the person involved, Section 66C of the IT Act, 2000, would apply under which an imprisonment of up to three years and a fine of up to 1lakh can be imposed. If the picture has nudity, then Section 67 of The IT Act, 2000, would apply which can result in an imprisonment of up to three years and a fine of five lakhs, if found guilty. Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code can also be imposed for defamation.
By working together and confronting these criminals we can beat them. No woman should live in fear and every girl should feel protected.
