Conman posing as woman stalks UP officers’ wives on FB

Lucknow, Aug 27 (IANS) A man posing as a woman on Facebook befriended wives of government officers in Lucknow and made objectionable calls to them, police said on Tuesday.

The police have registered an FIR against the unidentified man whose Facebook profile name is Sakshi Patel. Two cases filed in Vibhuti Khand within a week have been referred to the Cyber Cell.

According to the complaint filed by the wife of an officer, she received and accepted Sakshi Patel's friend request on August 19.

The next day, Sakshi Patel greeted her with 'Hi' and she replied with a good morning message with the image of a Hindu deity. Trouble started the same night, when the unsuspecting woman received a messenger call from her new friend. To her dismay, she found Sakshi Patel was a man.

"He was in an inappropriate state and I quickly disconnected the call," said the complainant. The accused began posting objectionable messages on her Facebook page.

He then said he had her video call screenshot, and would morph her pictures and make them viral if she did not talk to him. He also made video calls in which he was stark naked.

The second complaint lodged by another officer's wife reported a similar sequence of events.

Vibhuti Khand Station House Officer (SHO) Rajeev Dwiwedi confirmed that in both cases, the accused was the same man whose social media name was Sakshi Patel.

"The FIR has been registered against the person for threatening and publishing material containing sexually explicit act in electronic form. The Cyber Cell of Lucknow police will now handle the matter," he said.