Bombay HC: Mere Printed Screenshots Of Defamatory Facebook Posts Not Sufficient To Prove Fake Accounts

Mumbai: Mere printed screenshots of defamatory Facebook posts will not be sufficient to prove that they were created by a fake Facebook account, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court has held.

The court has quashed an FIR against a man charged with identity theft and obscenity by allegedly creating fake Facebook pages and posting defamatory posts against his estranged wife and his family. The court also rapped the investigating officer (IO) for probing the case in “total ignorance of provisions of law”.

The HC was hearing a petition by one Mahesh Tilkari seeking quashing of the FIR registered against him by his estranged wife’s brother with the Latur police station alleging that he created two fake Facebook accounts – one under the name "Minal Basavraj Swami" and another under "Chandra Surnal" – to post defamatory material about him and his family.

The complaint alleged that the posts harmed his reputation and that of his family, particularly the man's wife. He cited a marital dispute between the man and his wife as the possible motive behind the defamation.

The bench, after going through the material, observed that the investigation lacked sufficient evidence to link the accused to the creation of the fake accounts.

“Print of screenshots of Facebook material will not at any stretch of imagination prove that the said post was created from an alleged fake account,” a bench of Justices Vibha Kankanwadi and SG Chapalgaonkar said on October 22.

It added that only the screenshots of Facebook, of which prints have been taken, are annexed after seizure and there are statements of two witnesses. “Only on the basis of said material it cannot be said that the said Facebook posts were created by the man. Therefore, there is absolutely no evidence against him, and it would be a futile exercise to ask him to face the trial,” the bench underlined.

Rapping the IO, the bench said: “ We take the present case as a classic case, which is investigated in total ignorance of provisions of law and by a person, who appears to have not undergone training of detecting cyber crime.”

It added that the investigation failed to provide crucial evidence, such as IP address tracking or forensic analysis of the devices used to create the fake accounts.

“When it was specifically alleged in the First Information Report that two Facebook accounts have been fraudulently created, then the Investigating Officer ought to have got help of an expert to see from which IP address those accounts were created, whether any such electronic device of the said IP address is with the accused,” the judges added. The bench then quashed the FIR.