New Delhi: The Delhi police have arrested four men in connection to journalist Barkha Dutt’s FIR against anonymously sent obscene messages. While three of them are from Delhi, one is from Surat in Gujarat.

An FIR was registered with the cyber cell under sections 354-D (stalking), 506 (threatening), 507 (criminal intimidation) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections 67 and 67-A (publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act) of the Information Technology Act, after Dutt complained of harassment on social media and via text messages.

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The journalist said that she was receiving threatening messages, phone calls and obscene pictures from unknown people. She even took to Twitter to share one.

“I appear to have been made a victim of some fake news propaganda and my number has been shared on all social media platforms. I have been sent nude pictures and sexually abusive text messages. I fear for my well-being, security and life as this is a coordinated assault by a violent mob,” Dutt stated in her FIR.

The arrested people have been identified as Rajiv Sharma (23), Hemraj Kumar (31), Aditya Kumar (34) and Shabbir Gurfan Pinjari (45).

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The accused claimed they got Dutt's number, which was being circulated as a contact for ‘escort services’ on a social media site.

According to a police officer, Pinjari sent obscene photographs, while the others sent abusive messages to Dutt. The police are probing who leaked Dutt's phone number online.  

Pinjari has been remanded to 14-day judicial custody, while the other accused have been released on bail. 

There was a storm on Twitter after the identities of the accused came to light, especially in view of Dutt linking the harassment to have been engineered by 'nationalists'. Here are some tweets: