Hyderabad: Living true to its character of Jhamunda – an indestructible shape shifting monster with super magical powers (from the 2003 film in the Jajantaram Mamantaram) – an Instagram account with the name that is indulging in moral policing youngsters has managed to evade the Cyber Crime department’s dragnet.
Investigations into its activities of the Instagram page by the Hyderabad police have found that it is being operated from outside of Hyderabad. Police officials said that it is being run from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The Instagram pages ‘The jhamunda_official page ( 12.3k followers), Jhamunda_2 (14.5k), Jhamunda (1284), and Jhamunda and (677) has been literally secretly filming young couples from Hyderabad to post the videos on the accounts, while naming and shaming them. The videos are filmed through followers of the page, who reportedly send it to the administrators.
On the Instagram ‘Jhamunda’ pages, photos and videos taken secretly are posted, while ‘warning’ teenagers not to hang out together. The page in fact ‘warns’ youth from different communities to not inter-mingle.
The Hyderabad city police had registered three cases against the administrator of the Instagram page under sections 509,506, 354(D) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and the IT Act. Two accounts were removed following repeated complaints to the instagram company ‘Meta Platforms’, which owns the Instagram page.
The Hyderabad cyber police wrote the company to remove all the Instagram accounts of ‘Jhamunda’ after repeated complaints were made.
‘Jhamunda’ admin operating from UAE
Police investigations revealed the administrator of the page is operating from United Arab Emirates and pointedly Dubai. “All the IP addresses of the administrator are traced to UAE. The file will be moved to the higher authorities to reach out to the UAE authorities and initiate action against the page administrator,” said a senior official of Hyderabad police.
In September Siasat.com wrote a detailed article about ‘Jhamunda_official’ page on Instagram which was invading the privacy of youngsters by stalking couples to film and upload their videos/photos. The Hyderabad police took cognizance of the Instagram account’s activities and began its investigations.
The ‘Jhamunda’ page, or its owner, is more or less moral policing youngsters. Its admins or admin, have cleverly managed to evade the police so far. It is to be seen if the cops are able to track the perpetrators.
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