Delhi police reveal twist in ‘gang-rape’ plan on Snapchat conversation

A few days after the conversation about rape by teenage boys in a group chat tittle ‘Bois Lockeroom’ on Instagram stirred controversy, the Delhi police on Sunday (May 10), in its investigation into the case, stumbled a ‘similar’ chat on Snapchat. In that conversation, a girl, posing as a male, suggested a ‘sexual assault plan’ to a boy ‘to test his values and character,’ the police said.

The latest conversation was in no way linked to the Bois Instagram group in which obscene messages and morphed pictures of underage girls were shared, the Delhi police said.

However, devices of the two juveniles involved in the Snapchat conversation have been seized and sent for forensic analysis, they said. When the Bois case became known, screenshots of multiple chats were shared on social media and among those was a one-to-one Snapchat conversation involving one Siddharth suggesting an ‘aggravated sexual assault plan’ on a girl, said Anyesh Roy, deputy commissioner of police (cyber crime unit). Investigation revealed that the Snapchat conversation was actually between a girl and a boy. The girl created a fake profile in the name Siddharth and suggested the sexual assault plan to check the boy’s reaction and test his character, he said.

The boy declined to participate in any such plan and stopped further communication. He, however, took a screenshot of the chat and reported it to his friends, including the girl about whom the conversation took place, Roy said. One of the other recipients of the screenshot posted it as an Instagram story, from where it started circulating in various social media accounts along with screenshots from the Bois Instagram group, he said.

The police said that no case would be registered against either the girl or the boy. “Although, creating a fake id is wrong, her intent was not malicious so we are not filing any complaint,” an official said. Information about the group came to light after a girl shared screenshots of its activities.

Following this, the group started being called out on social media. The police said during social media monitoring, it was noticed that the group was being used by the participants to share obscene messages and morphed pictures.

So far, 24 members of the Instagram group have been identified and police are still waiting for details sought by them from the social media platform and the Forensic Science Laboratory where they have sent the devices for examination. The group admin was arrested and a juvenile apprehended, the police said, adding a case under relevant sections of the IT Act and the IPC has been registered.