Balasore: Police have arrested a 33-year-old man on the charge of posting derogatory remarks against a woman online after opening a fake Facebook account.

The accused, Abhishek Panda, is a resident of Damodarpur village in Town police station limits. He was forwarded to court after being booked under section 417 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 469 (forgery intending harm reputation) of the IPC and section 67, 67 (A) of the IT act.

He was sent to jail after his bail plea was on rejected.

Industrial police station inspector in charge Paresh Rout said they took help of the Facebook headquarters in California to identify the culprit.

He had opened the account under the name of Maharana Pratap Singh.The woman's husband had lodged a complaint with police on June 14 last year. The cops had been investigating the case since then.

"The case consumed quite some time as correct information was required to act against the culprit. The district cyber cell wing investigated the matter with help from Facebook. The required details were made available from the Facebook headquarters in California. The accused was identified with the help of his mobile number," said Rout.

Sources said the woman was the wife of a journalist while the accused is the son of a woman leader of a political party. The mischief was carried out after the publication of a news story against the leader, said the complainant.

Man set home on fire

Police have arrested a 32-year-old alcoholic man for setting on fire the house where his family, including children, lived. The incident occurred on Saturday at Paschima-Mania village of Endara gram panchayat in Derabish police station limits.

The accused, Sushanta Kumar Sahu, apparently did not get along well with his parents and wife. On Saturday, when everyone was asleep, he stealthily sprinkled kerosene on the thatched-roof house and set it on fire.

Neighbours rescued the family members. No one was hurt even though the house was partially gutted, police said. Sushanta fled after setting the house on fire.

A neighbour saw what happened and raised an alarm. The villagers later caught the accused and handed him over to the police.

Sushanta was arrested following a complaint lodged by his father, Mathuranand Sahu. The accused confessed to the crime. He has been booked under Indian Penal Code section 436 (setting house on fire) and 307 (attempt to murder). He was later remanded to judicial custody, said Dearabish police station inspector Sudhir Kumar Sahu.

A psychiatrist, however, said this was likely to be a case of mental illness.