Mananthavady: Wayanad police have arrested a 19-year-old youth for allegedly circulating intimate visuals of a girl he befriended through a fake Instagram account.

The accused has been identified as Poonthurakavil P Sahad, a native of Vattamkulam, Edappal, in Malappuram district. Police said Sahad, who had completed a mobile technician course, created a fake Instagram ID using a SIM card removed from a woman’s mobile phone that had been given to him for repair. The phone belonged to his father's friend.

Using a false name, Sahad allegedly befriended a Wayanad native on Instagram and later obtained intimate visuals of her. He is accused of pressuring the girl to send more such visuals and threatening to make them public when she refused. Distressed by the harassment, the girl blocked the account.

Police said Sahad later shared the visuals with one of the girl’s friends on December 3. The friend’s mother noticed the content and alerted the girl’s parents, following which a social worker advised the family to approach the police to ensure the visuals were taken down.

Based on a technical investigation, Mananthavady police traced the mobile phone used to create the fake account. They first identified the woman who owned the phone and later established that Sahad had created and operated the Instagram ID. He was taken into custody from his house at Edappal and formally arrested after questioning. Police said Sahad later confessed to the crime.

The investigation was led by Mananthavady station house officer P Refeeq, along with sub-inspectors S Jithinkumar and Joys George, and senior civil police officers Robin George, Shinto Joseph, and P Anilkumar.