Two Italians booked for online harassment in Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: Police on Friday registered a case against three persons, including two Italian nationals, for allegedly defaming on social media another Italian who settled in

Puri

after marrying a local woman several years ago.

Rombola Alfredo (71) lodged a complaint with the cyber police in Puri accusing Fabrriziorocco Donati,

Esposito Teo Matteo

alias Mandali Bhadra (the two Italians) and

Krishna Priya Sahu

, a local woman, for allegedly hatching a conspiracy to defame him on Facebook and other social media platforms.

Donati and Krishna Priya claim to have tied the knot with each other. They, along with

Matteo

(Facebook name Mandali Bhadra), conspired against me. They created fake Facebook handles and peddled lies about me and my family, by branding me as a paedophile, criminal and scammer, Alfredo wrote in his complaint.

Alfredo, who runs a charitable organisation in Puri and organises free medical camps for the poor, said he has been receiving threats to his life from the accused. “My son too has been receiving death threats. I request the police to immediately arrest the accused,” he said.

The police said they were trying to contact Facebook and YouTube to remove the objectionable content against Alfredo and his family members. “We have registered a case under sections 500 (punishment for defamation), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 34 (act done by several persons with a common intention) of the IPC. The charges are being verified. Efforts are being made to block the particular fake social media handles,” Puri SP Kanwar Vishal Singh told TOI.

The police sources said Matteo, who married an Indian woman in Puri long back, and his friend Donati are currently in Italy. It must be noted the crime branch had arrested Matteo and

William George Benedict

, a US national, in August 2000 for allegedly sexually assaulting a six-year-old child from Austria in Puri for several weeks. The child’s mother, who was in Puri, had lodged a complaint against the accused.