Delhi Police arrests Instagram group admin in 'bois locker room' case; 27 other members identified

After Delhi Police apprehended a 15-year-old boy on 4 May in connection with the ‘bois locker room’ (an Instagram group reportedly created to share photos of minor girls and exchange lewd comments) case, latest reports suggest the administrator of the said group has been arrested. NDTV reports that the arrested boy is a Class 12 student from a school in Noida. According to the police, he is not a minor and had appeared for Board examinations this year. In addition to this, Delhi Police has also identified 27 other members of the group, of which 15 are minors and will be tried in a juvenile court upon investigation. The other members are above the age of 18. Earlier on 5 May, five other students were questioned by the Cyber Crime Cell, reports The Indian Express. The five teens, all from prominent South Delhi schools and studying in classes 10-12, were questioned for around six hours in the presence of their parents. [caption id=“attachment_8337971” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image.[/caption] A source from the police department told the Indian Express that the phones of these students have been confiscated. “They have already deleted their messages and accounts. During questioning, all of them told the police… that they were added to the group by their friends from school, neighbourhood and coaching classes,” the source said. In addition to these five, 21 other members of the group have also been sent notices asking them to come for questioning, The Indian Express report adds. Currently, the police is trying to identify the remaining members of the Instagram group and also seeking legal help to ensure minor rights are not violated during the investigation procedure. Meanwhile, according to a report by The Hindustan Times, a 14-year-old boy from Gurugram ended his life on Monday even as the bois locker room controversy unfolded on social media. The deceased had been called out on social media on Monday by a girl who accused him of sexual harassment, although it isn’t immediately evident if there was a connection to the bois locker room case. “No suicide note was found but messages retrieved from the boy’s phone showed that fellow students warned him that he will be questioned by the police,” an official told Hindustan Times.  He also added that they will investigate the suicide further by questioning the girl who posted her #MeToo account accusing the deceased as well as other students who commented on it. On Monday, a series of screenshots of the chats from the Instagram group were posted across social media platforms on 4 May, triggering a row. Facebook, which also owns Instagram, issued a statement condemning the incident. “We absolutely do not allow behaviour that promotes sexual violence or exploits anyone, especially women and young people, and have actioned content violating our Community Standards as we were made aware of it. We have policies that disallow the sharing of non-consensual intimate imagery, as well as threats to share such imagery and we take this issue very seriously. Ensuring our community can express themselves in a safe and respectful way is our top priority,” a Facebook spokesperson said, as reported by India Today.