West Bengal: Engineering student arrested for sending Momo invites

BURDWAN/KOLKATA: The police on Thursday arrested an engineering student for allegedly sending Momo Challenge invites to fellow students and acquaintances by morphing his online identity. This is the first arrest in the case in Bengal, which has seen several complaints pour in in the recent days. Cops said the 20-year-old accused, Ketugram resident Arindam Patra, will be questioned to ascertain his motives.



Prima facie, cops believe Patra wanted to threaten his acquaintances, but a larger motive — including extortion or revenge — has not been ruled out yet. The student of a private engineering college in

Durgapur

was granted bail by a local Katwa court on Friday, but was asked to help with the probe.

“It is important to ascertain if he was working as an individual or was part of a group,” said DIG (operations) Nishat Pervez, confirming that complainant Joy Krishna Pal — based on whose claim Patra was arrested — was a friend of the accused. Pal, a third-year student in

Katwa College

, had approached Katwa police on August 28 with his complaint.

Police said there were around 12 cases of Momo invites pending in Burdwan itself. “We have found only a single involvement of the accused so far,” said an officer.

According to SP (East Burdwan) Bhaskar Mukherjee, Patra used all available technical means to conceal his identity. He used a free app available on Google Playstore to gain access to some virtual numbers. Patra then hacked the wi-fi networks in his vicinity and used it to conceal his IP footprint. “We had to be patient to get his exact location before we checked his activities. We arrested Patra after being certain about his involvement,” said Mukherjee.

Patra has been charged under IPC sections 419 (cheating) and 505 (1) (b) (causing fear or alarm in public), along with sections 66D and 70 of the IT Act. CID hinted it will look in to slapping other charges through the district police if required.

CID sources said the arrest bolstered their claim that the challenge was being used to spread panic.