Two 19-year-olds held near Mumbai for circulating nude clips on WA

The accused Ian Inas Dimonti (left) Andrich Oscar Figer

The Virar police have arrested two college-going teenagers who allegedly shared an obscene video of a minor girl on WhatsApp. The matter came to light on July 8, when the victim's father approached the police. "The girl's father claimed that an obscene video of his 16-year-old daughter had been circulating on WhatsApp. Considering the seriousness of the situation we quickly registered an FIR," said a police officer.

With the help of technical investigations, the police found that the video circulating on WhatsApp had originated from a Snapchat account hudson01199. The police however couldn't identify the suspect and hence they wrote to MBVV Cyber Cell for assistance. "We wrote to the cyber cell that we needed to identify the suspect. The cyber cell then wrote a letter to the Snapchat team in the USA. With the information provided by Snapchat in America we identified the suspect in Nallasopara," the police said.

The screenshot of the Snapchat account from which the obscene video had allegedly originated

The police identified the alleged suspect as Ian Inas Dimonti, 19 and he was apprehended from Gasgoan in Nallasopara on August 10. In police custody, Dimonti revealed that he had Andrich Oscar Figer, 19, as an accomplice to the crime and the police also arrested him. Both the teens are degree college students pursuing education in commerce.

During the investigation it was revealed that Dimonti had befriended the minor. "The accused had lured the victim by claiming he wanted to have a relationship with her. He asked her to undress and send the video to him. The girl had obliged," said the police. The alleged incident took place some time in June.

As a view-once feature is integral to Snapchat and attempting to save the video or capture the screen would alert the sender, Dimonti allegedly used another phone to record the screen and shared the obscene video in WhatsApp groups. The police are investigating whether the accused had shared videos of other victims. The minor girl's father was alerted about the video circulating in WhatsApp groups by his friend.

The police will now investigate whether the accused got any financial benefits by sharing the video of the victim and whether they have done this before. "We are investigating the case, the suspects don't have any criminal antecedents," said the police. A FIR had been registered under section 354 (outraging the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under the relevant sections of POCSO Act 2012. The section of IPC has been invoked as the alleged offence had taken place prior to BNS had come into effect.