BENGALURU: The high court Tuesday quashed proceedings initiated against a college student after he sent an Instagram direct message (DM) calling his classmate “pretty” about two years ago.The 20-year-old was booked for voyeurism, stalking and outraging the modesty of a woman in connection with the complaint lodged by the classmate, who also happens to be daughter of an IPS officer. The HC had earlier stayed the proceedings.Allowing the student’s petition, Justice M Nagaprasanna noted that it is a private exchange between two classmates. The chat is not a public one.The language deployed is what students of this day use: Gen Z lingo. That cannot become a crime. Permitting investigation to continue would amount to abuse of the process of law, the judge added.The case got registered reportedly after the message was shown to the girl’s father. Challenging it, the boy argued he was a young cricketer, destined to represent the Tamil Nadu team and the criminal case foisted against him seriously affected his career.The court was told the girl had responded to the DM sent by the petitioner on Instagram with a “thanks“ message.During investigation, police officers had seized the boy’s laptop and mobile phone, which according to him, was in violation of the mandatory procedure contemplated under law.After perusing the materials on record, Justice Nagaprasanna noted there was neither any act of stalking nor voyeurism, nor could the messages amount to outraging the modesty of a woman, as alleged in the complaint.
