One of my clients recently had a case which I am explaining below and if you are stuck in such similar situation, here is what to do.
Note: Due to attorney-client privilege, I cannot disclose complete case details or identify the actual parties involved. However, I am sharing the essential facts and legal approach so that if you find yourself in a similar situation, you can understand the available solutions and legal remedies.
TL;DR: Sending fabricated chats and morphed photographs while claiming to be someone's ex is a criminal offence in India, not a personal matter to be shrugged off. You can file an FIR, and in most cases you should, even if the officer at the counter tells you this is a personal matter between two people who once lived together. The worst of the material can be pulled off a platform within a day or two if you move in the first week. And there are civil remedies that run alongside the criminal complaint — they are not alternatives, they are parallel tracks.
The part that is hardest to prove
The version I had was one-sided. It always is at the first sitting. A phone, a folder of screenshots, and somebody who has not slept properly for days.
The chats were not conversations the client had ever had. The photographs were the client's face on a body that was never theirs. Whoever was doing it was signing off as the ex — or as someone the ex had supposedly been with. I still do not know who was behind it, and on the material I had at that stage, neither did the client. That is the honest position in most of these matters when they first walk in.
One thing people do that makes this harder: they delete the messages. Sometimes to make the phone stop buzzing, sometimes out of shame. It is not fatal, but it costs you proof. If you have not deleted anything yet, do not start now.
What the law actually looks at
Three questions decide which sections get used. Who did it, what exactly they did, and whether what they did fits a specific offence rather than a general one.
Pretending to be someone else
Creating a profile or an identity in another person's name is cheating by personation under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. On the technology side, the police routinely add the corresponding provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000 — identity theft and cheating by personation using a computer resource. Where a fake account is built using someone's photographs or personal identifiers, these are the sections that come into play.
Manufacturing the chats and the photographs
A chat log that was never exchanged, presented as if it were genuine, is a forged electronic record. Forgery and the use of a forged document are offences under Sections 336 to 340 of the BNS. This matters because "he made up a screenshot" sounds trivial to a police officer and "forged electronic record used to harm someone" sounds like what it is.
Defamation, and the civil suit beside it
Sending the material to family, employers or a wider circle is defamation under Section 356 of the BNS. You can also sue civilly for damages and seek an injunction restraining further publication. The two run together. A criminal case punishes; a civil suit stops and compensates.
When the material is sexual
If morphed photographs are sexual in nature, the IT Act provisions on publishing obscene and sexually explicit material apply, and the punishment is heavier. Voyeurism and stalking provisions in the BNS cover the surrounding conduct — the repeated contact, the monitoring, the surveillance. Do not let anyone tell you that a morphed image is "only a photograph".
When money is demanded
If the demand is for cash to keep the material quiet, that is extortion under the BNS, and it changes the character of the case entirely. It also usually means the person is traceable, because money leaves a trail.
Where do you file a case over fabricated chats and morphed photographs?
The police station
An FIR is registered under Section 173 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. You can give the information orally or in writing, and you are entitled to a free copy of the FIR. For offences punishable between three and seven years, the police have the option of a short preliminary enquiry before registering — that is a legal step, not a favour, and it does not mean your complaint is dead.
If the offence happened in another city, a Zero FIR can be registered at any police station and then transferred. Do not travel first. Register, then follow the file.
The national cyber crime portal
Complaints involving fake profiles, morphed images and online impersonation can be filed at the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal. If money has changed hands, the financial cyber fraud helpline is 1930, and time matters enormously there. Portal complaints do not replace the FIR, but they create a record and a paper trail.
If the police will not register
Two routes. First, an application to the Magistrate under Section 175(3) of the BNSS asking for a direction to investigate. Second, for offences that are non-cognizable, a private complaint before the Magistrate. In practice the police often try to push a fake-profile case into mediation because the parties knew each other. You are not obliged to mediate a forgery.
Getting the posts taken down
Platforms that host user content have to act on complaints about content showing a person in a sexual or nude context — the IT Rules, 2021 require the grievance officer to move on it within 24 hours, and the content has to come down within that period. For other content the window is longer and the process looser. Write to the platform's grievance officer with the exact URLs and the date, keep the acknowledgement, and if they sit on it, there is a Grievance Appellate Committee you can escalate to. A court order is faster where the platform is slow.
What to save, and in what form
Electronic records are proved a particular way in India. The Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 — the provision that replaced Section 65B of the old Evidence Act — requires a certificate for electronic records to be admitted in most proceedings. So:
- Do not delete the messages, the profile, or the images. Not one of them.
- Do not factory reset the phone and do not clear the app data.
- Take screenshots that show the URL or handle, the date, and the time.
- Keep the original device. A screenshot on a new phone is weaker evidence than the phone the message arrived on.
- Note down, separately, a plain list of dates — what came on which day, to whom, from which handle.
Key facts at a glance
- It is a criminal matter, not a private one. Requiring the parties to have been in a relationship does not convert forgery into a domestic dispute.
- The core offences are impersonation, forgery, defamation and —
- The core offences are impersonation, forgery, defamation and — where the images are sexual — the IT Act's obscenity provisions, which carry the heaviest punishment of the lot. Which label applies decides which officer handles the file and how quickly it moves.
- An FIR can be registered where you are. A Zero FIR is recorded at any police station and then transferred to the one with jurisdiction. You do not have to travel first.
- The fastest thing you control is the takedown. For content showing a person nude or in a sexual act, the IT Rules, 2021 give the platform 24 hours from your written complaint to the grievance officer.
- Keep the phone exactly as it is. No factory reset, no clearing app data, no deleting threads. Electronic records need a certificate to be admitted in most proceedings.
- Criminal and civil run side by side, not one after the other. The criminal case punishes. The civil suit stops the publication and can get you damages.
- Delay is the quiet killer. There are limits on how late a court can take cognizance of less serious offences. Defamation is punishable with simple imprisonment up to two years, and a complaint that sits in a drawer for a year can run into those limits.
- Anyone who forwards it is also on the hook. Reposting the material into a group is a fresh act by a fresh person.
What actually happens after you file
Your statement gets recorded, you get a copy of the FIR, and the investigating officer will usually ask for the device. Say yes, and ask for a receipt describing it. The phone goes for forensic examination; that examination is what identifies the account holder, the IP address and the upload times. In some of these matters the accused is traced within weeks because they used their own number or their own internet connection. In others, nothing comes back, and the case stays open. Both outcomes are real and I have seen neither one more often than the other.
Alongside that, you write to the platform. If the account is still up, the officer's notice to the platform carries more weight than yours does. Where a platform is dragging its feet on non-sexual content, you can ask a court for a direction to take it down and to preserve the records — preservation is often more valuable than deletion, because once a server is wiped, the trail is gone.
The BNSS does set an outer limit on paper for finishing investigations in offences punishable between three and seven years. In a cyber case waiting on forensic reports, treat that limit as a direction of travel rather than a promise.
Where cases like this actually go wrong
- The messages were deleted before anyone advised otherwise.
- The complaint was filed months later, by which time the account was deleted and the platform had nothing to preserve.
- The complaint was vague. "He is defaming me online" gives an officer nothing to act on. Dates, handles, URLs and what each post said give him a file he can work.
- Nobody wrote down who received what. Defamation turns on publication — who saw it, and when. A list of names and dates is evidence.
- The conduct ran both ways. If messages were sent back, or the same material was passed on in reply, that gets raised by the other side and it does weaken the picture.
And some of these complaints are simply not provable. If the account was made over a public network with no link to any identifiable person, there may be very little to take to a chargesheet, however badly you have been treated. A takedown, a civil injunction and a closed criminal file is a poor outcome, but it is an honest one, and you should hear it early rather than after a year of appearances.
What to bring to a first consultation
- The FIR, if one has been registered, and its date and number.
- The screenshots, in a folder, named by date. Do not clean them up or crop them.
- A two-line note in plain language: what happened, roughly when it started, and who you think is behind it.
- Anything the platform or the police have written back to you, including the grievance reference numbers.
That is enough to sit down with. If you have nothing but a phone and a date, that is also enough to start.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I file an FIR if the fake profile was made in another state?
Yes. Go to the police station nearest to you and ask for a Zero FIR. It is registered there, given a number, and forwarded to the station that has jurisdiction over the offence. Later, if you want to follow the investigation, you deal with the second station.
The police say it is a personal matter because we were in a relationship. Is that right?
No. Having known someone, or having lived with them, does not convert forgery and impersonation into a private dispute. Where the parties are in a domestic relationship there are additional protections available, but those are options on top of the criminal case, not replacements for it. You are not obliged to sit in mediation over a forged record.
What if the police refuse to register the FIR at all?
You can move the Magistrate under Section 175(3) of the BNSS for a direction to investigate, or file a private complaint for the non-cognizable offences. Keep a written copy of your complaint and any acknowledgement — the refusal itself becomes part of the record you place before the Magistrate.
Do I have to choose between the criminal case and a civil suit?
No. File both. The criminal case deals with punishment and needs a higher standard of proof. The civil suit deals with stopping the publication and compensation, and it can move faster on an interim application. Evidence gathered in one can help the other.
Can the posts be removed without going to court?
Often, yes. For content showing a person nude or engaged in a sexual act, the IT Rules, 2021 require the platform's grievance officer to act within 24 hours of your complaint. For other defamatory content the timeline is longer and the outcome less certain, so you write to the platform and prepare to escalate to the Grievance Appellate Committee or to court if nothing happens.
Can the person behind an anonymous account ever be identified?
Sometimes. It depends on how they created and used the account. A court or the investigating officer can require the platform to disclose subscriber and access records, but if the account was made through a public network with no link to a phone number or payment, the trail can go cold. I would rather tell you that at the start than after a year.
I already deleted the messages. Is it over?
Not necessarily. There may still be copies with the people who received them, notifications on other devices, backup copies, and the platform's own records. Tell your advocate exactly what you deleted and when, so the rest of the case is built on what survives.
Before you write to a chamber
Send the order or the FIR if there is one, the date it was issued or registered, and two lines saying what was done to you and when. That is all I need to give you a straight view. You can use the contact form or book a consultation. Advoc. Jyoti Rao, my associate, handles family and matrimonial matters where the conduct also involves a spouse or former spouse, and those files are often run together with the criminal complaint.
One last thing, and it is the only instruction on this page that really cannot be undone: do not delete anything, and do not wait three months to see if it stops. It rarely stops on its own.
This article is general information about Indian law and is not legal advice on your own situation. Facts differ, and so do the sections that fit them.
Advocate Sudhir Rao, Supreme Court of India
Facing a similar matter? Speak to a Delhi criminal defence lawyer — 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.