Youth posts morphed picture of fake award from President Kovind, arrested

A 20-year-old man was arrested here on Saturday for posting a morphed picture on social media of him receiving a fake cyber security award from President Ram Nath Kovind that went viral online, police said.

He was produced in a court and later remanded to two-day police custody.

The accused Rahul Rathi (20), a resident of Tiwari under Mathania police station limits of Jodhpur, is an information technology engineering graduate and runs a mobile phone agency in the town.

Mathania police station SHO Gautam Dotasara said one Ramesh had given a complaint on Friday that Rathi had posted a photograph on his Facebook page and WhatsApp purportedly receiving an honour from the President for "exemplary contribution in cyber security", which was fake.

In his post, which was uploaded on July 9 on his Facebook account and WhatsApp, Rathi had mentioned that the day had brought him extreme pleasure and pride. Honourable President of India honoured him for his exemplary contribution in the field of cyber security at Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi," said Dotasara.

This photo of him receiving the "honour" from the President went viral with several comments, likes and wishes following the post.

Based on the complaint, we filed an FIR against Rathi under appropriate sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act and arrested him on Saturday," said Dotasara adding that the accused was produced in the court, which sent him to two days in police custody.

As per preliminary investigation, Rathi had found a picture on the President's official Twitter handle, in which Kovind received a portrait of himself by the newly-appointed Indian Ambassador to Finland Raveesh Kumar, who was till recently the MEA spokesperson.

Apparently, Rathi removed the picture of Raveesh Kumar and placed his own photograph by morphing the original one.

He got the morphing done by some service provider in Delhi and made a payment for the work through e-payment, the police officer said.

The police officer added that Rathi had even gone to Delhi in order to make his story look realistic and posted the picture on his social media accounts before returning home to earn people's trust.

We are also trying to reach out to the service provider, which morphed the original photograph for Rathi in Delhi," said the officer.