Bhubaneswar, March 28: The state crime branch last night arrested Sujit Sahoo, who is accused of sharing pictures of some Rama Devi Women's University students on a Facebook page with a sexually suggestive caption.
Crime branch sleuths arrested the 31-year-old from a building at Mahanga in Cuttack district.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik used his Twitter handle @Naveen_Odisha this morning to announce the arrest of the accused.
"Prime accused Sujit Sahu in the cyber crime case arrested last night. Hope this serves as a strong deterrent & such acts are not repeated," he said.
Sahoo, used to run a Facebook page named Aarohi Creations where he had allegedly posted the pictures of around 60 students of the university with a suggestive caption. The women lodged a formal complaint with Saheed Nagar police on Saturday.
The incident had also drawn widespread criticism from several organisations that had since staged demonstrations for quick action by the cops and the arrest of the accused.
Yesterday, Naveen handed over the case to the crime branch. The students of the university and those of two other women's colleges in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar had met the chief minister at his office in the Assembly and demanded a thorough investigation into the incident.
"We will seek a three-day remand of the accused for further investigation into the case. Though he was the only accused mentioned in the complaint, we will further interrogate him to find out about the possible involvement of others," said special director-general, crime branch, B.K. Sharma.
The police, who were earlier probing the matter, conducted several raids to nab Sahoo, who had allegedly created the page, but failed to trace him. The police said the students had told them that Sahoo, a native of Angul, used to work as a social worker in the city for the past few years.
"We have been trying to nab him to ascertain his antecedents," a police official had said.
The police probe was also hampered after the Facebook page was blocked on March 25, following complaints from some of the victims, making it difficult for police to gain access to it.
Today, another student from Rourkela levelled similar allegations against the accused.
The girl has lodged a complaint with the Rourkela Mahila police station.
"The Facebook page Aarohi Creations had also posted photographs of mine and two other girls from Rourkela with the same suggestive caption, thus defaming us. I came to know about the incident on Sunday after the matter surfaced in various media platforms," said the girl.
On the other hand, students of Rama Devi Women's University suspected the involvement of others in the incident.
"The arrest of the accused was a major relief for us, but we suspect Sahoo of being part of an organised gang. We suspect the gang members befriend the girls on social networking sites and later, download their photographs and use those to make suggestive posts," said a victim.
