Harassed by photographer, model files complaint

The accused is a habitual offender and has already been arrested thrice by the Hyderabad Police for crimes against women

A 22-year-old Bangalorean model and aspiring actress working in Mumbai has accused a Hyderabad-based fashion photographer of taking unauthorised, obscene photographs of her during a profile photoshoot and uploading the pictures online, without her consent.

A case was registered by cybercrime investigators attached to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), and a detailed investigation has revealed that the suspect was based in Hyderabad and the case was transferred to the office of the Bengaluru Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) to initiate legal proceedings.

In May 2010, 18-year-old Sonia, fresh out of high school, hoped to kick-start a career in fashion designing and modelling. A family friend referred Sonia to Preet Shergill alias Sandy Singh, a model-cum-choreographer-cum fashion photographer in Hyderabad.

"We enquired online and found Shergill's contact number, so we got in touch with him to get a profile photoshoot of my daughter done. He asked for a sum of Rs 1.3 lakh as fees and we agreed to deposit an advance sum of Rs 65,000. Our entire family accompanied my daughter to Hyderabad for two days, but Preet told us the shoot would have to be extended by two days. So we left Sonia with relatives and returned to Bengaluru. However, she called us the next day saying she was very uncomfortable with Preet and suspected his intentions were not good. So we booked her tickets to come back home immediately," recalled Sonia's father.

The victim also changed her mobile number in fear that Preet would try to harass her. However, the photographer's obsession did not end there. He reportedly began telephoning the victim's landline and even sought out her address and landed at her doorstep on two occasions.

"We refused to entertain him, of course, but my daughter was mortified. Fortunately, she completed her bachelor's degree in fashion designing and shifted base to Mumbai, where she is enrolled in a reputed acting school. So he does not know her whereabouts," quoted Sonia’s father.

Then, the bombshell dropped. One of the girl's mother's relatives in Hyderabad called her father last week saying they had seen a blown-up version of an obscene photograph of Sonia in Preet's dance studio in Himayatnagar.

"This roused our suspicions. So we looked him up on Facebook and found an entire album of photos - available for public viewing - taken surreptitiously while my daughter was changing clothes in-between the photoshoot. The photos had been uploaded at least a year ago and had received unsavoury comments from many men," said the father.

When the father called Preet and demanded that the photos be taken down, the latter allegedly used filthy language and threatened to kidnap Sonia. He then sent a barrage of nearly 50 abusive text messages to her father's number, after which the family lodged a complaint with the police.

Confirming the incident, a senior police official said, "Going by the statements made by the victim's father, it seems the accused was arrested at least two to three times before by the Hyderabad Police for similar offences involving other women. We have to verify his antecedents. We suspect the accused has deleted his Facebook profile which contained an album of 60-70 obscene photos of the victim. However, we were provided screenshots and printouts of the pages before they were deleted. Before sending a team of policemen to Hyderabad, we have to take the victim's statements as well. With inputs from Bangalore Mirror