Pune: The Hadapsar police have detained three minors , aged 15 to 16 years, on charges of outraging the modesty and stalking four schoolgirls by morphing their photos and posting them on a social media site between June 16 and 30. One of the detained boys is a school dropout, while the others are Std X students. They are from the same school and standard as the girls.
Police said the three boys were sent to an observation home on Thursday night. On Friday, police produced the boys before the juvenile justice board (JJB), which ordered the release of one of them on bail and handed over his custody to his parents. The board ordered the detention of the two other boys in the observation home.
“The matter came to light when one of the girls learnt about her morphed photos that were posted on social media. She reported the matter to the school headmistress. School authorities called the girl’s parents to discuss the matter, and a complaint was lodged later with the police,” said inspector (crime) Nilesh Jagdale from Hadapsar police.
Jagdale said of the three minors, the school dropout is from an auto rickshaw driver’s family while another is raised by a single parent and the third is the son of a state reserve police force employee. The officer said, “Questioning of the school dropout revealed that he had clicked photos of the four girls and used an application to morph them. The boy then sent the photos to his two friends, one of whom made the photos viral on social med.