Cyber stalking — being repeatedly followed, monitored, messaged or threatened online against your wishes — is a criminal offence in India, and you do not have to tolerate it. The law recognises persistent unwanted contact through email, social media, messaging apps or fake profiles as stalking, and it gives you clear routes to stop it and to hold the person accountable.
What counts as cyber stalking
- Repeated messages, calls or emails after you have asked the person to stop.
- Monitoring your online activity, tracking your location, or watching every post and story.
- Creating fake profiles to contact you, or to impersonate or defame you.
- Threats, blackmail, or sharing (or threatening to share) your private images.
- Flooding you or your contacts with messages to intimidate or isolate you.
The law that protects you
Several provisions can apply together, depending on the conduct:
- Stalking under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 — including monitoring a person’s use of the internet or electronic communication.
- Words or gestures intended to insult modesty, and sexual harassment provisions of the BNS, where the conduct is sexual in nature.
- Criminal intimidation under the BNS, for threats.
- Sections 66E, 67 and 67A of the IT Act, where privacy is violated or obscene or sexually explicit material is involved.
Where private or intimate images are involved, the offence is more serious and time is critical — takedown and preservation must move quickly.
How to build a strong complaint
- Preserve everything. Take dated screenshots of messages, profiles, URLs and call logs. Do not delete or reply in anger.
- Document the pattern. Stalking is about repetition — a simple log of dates, times and what happened is powerful evidence.
- Report to the platform and use its blocking and reporting tools, but keep copies first.
- File a complaint at cybercrime.gov.in (which has a dedicated channel for women and children) or at your local cyber cell, and pursue an FIR.
- Seek protection. Where there are threats or a risk to safety, a lawyer can help you seek urgent protective orders and injunctions alongside the criminal complaint.
Frequently asked questions
The stalker is anonymous. Can anything be done?
Yes. Investigating agencies can seek subscriber and IP details from platforms and service providers. Anonymity online is rarely absolute.
Can men file cyber-stalking complaints too?
Harassment, criminal intimidation and IT Act offences protect everyone. Some stalking provisions are framed around women, but the broader offences apply regardless of gender.
How Advocate Sudhir Rao can help
If you have been targeted — or wrongly accused — in a matter like this, the first 48 hours usually decide how quickly it is resolved. As an Advocate practising before the Supreme Court of India, the Delhi High Court and the District Courts across Delhi NCR, I help clients respond to cyber cells, secure the release of frozen accounts, and defend against or pursue complaints under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Information Technology Act.
Consultations are confidential and privileged. For urgent matters, call +91 97295 06771 or book a consultation.
This article is general legal information, not legal advice, and does not create an advocate–client relationship. Statutory section numbers can change with amendments; your specific facts should be checked with counsel before you act.
Facing a similar matter? Speak to a criminal lawyer in Delhi — Advocate Sudhir Rao appears in bail, trial and appellate matters before the Delhi District Courts, the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court of India.