Bois Locker Room case: 15-yr-old detained in South Delhi, cops probe online group

The Delhi police Cyber Cell has registered an FIR after following a complaint about an online Instagram group, police have also apprehended a 15 year old boy from South Delhi for his alleged involvement in a viral Instagram group named ‘Bois Locker Room’, where a bunch of school going boys objectified young girls and discussed their body parts, a report In Indian Express said.

Screenshot from the allege online group (‘Bois Locker Room’) were highly circulated on Twitter and Instagram on Sunday.

According to the report, the police took to suo motu cognizance of the matter and filed an FIR.

“On Monday, we found out that the administration of a prominent private school had filed a complaint at Saket police station,” a senior official told The Indian Express.

“In their complaint, school authorities requested police to investigate the incident. Police, using technical surveillance, got the registered number of the 15-year-old, who had allegedly shared a photograph on the group. His phone was switched off. After finding his address, he was apprehended on Monday evening,” the official added.

During their probe so far, the police have found that the Instagram group was created by some school student of prominent institutions in South Delhi.

The Indian Express quoted the Official as saying, A few members are in college. Some of the teens allegedly started sharing photos posted by schoolgirls on their Instagram accounts, and passing sexually explicit comments.

The purported chats also included threats of sexual violence, said the senior official.

“After we came to know, we registered an FIR under Sections 465 (forgery), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and Sections 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) and 67A (publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act in electronic form) of the IT Act. We are probing the matter and collecting all technical evidence, “ DCP (Cyber Cell) Anyesh Roy told The Indian Express.

Four private schools from South Delhi and one from Noida have been reportedly linked so far.

The Indian Express quoted the principal of one of the Delhi schools as saying, It appears that some of the students who were part of the group were from our school. By the time we got to know, a complaint had already reached police. It does come as a shock to us as we have an atmosphere in school that encourages discussion around issues of gender and respect, as well as cyber crime. We have had several workshops. Schools try to build a secure but open space for children where discussion is encouraged. I also believe that the involvement of parents in their children’s lives is very important when it comes to things like these. Parents need to take on these roles, and not just that of disciplining or leaving the child alone altogether. They are ready to give children unfettered access to smartphones but, in many cases, the discussions around responsibility and respect are missing.

A Facebook spokesperson in a press statement said , “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.”

I have been approached by a few Instagram users, who were outraged by the screenshots. “We are trying to track down details of the members, founder of Cyber World Academy, Shubham Singh said.