ORKUT A COMMUNITY-BASED portal has become very popular amongst the people across the world. Millions of people mostly youth visit the site everyday in search of their old friends or to make new friends as well. A new and unique innovation by Google, Orkut was started just couple of years back and now it has become a leading social networking site. Although Orkut has benefited the masses and brought departed friends together, but on the other hand it has also taken the lives of so many users who were trapped by the wrong people with fake identities.

A Mumbai teenager Adnan Patrawala, son of a businessman was trapped on Orkut and later he was murdered. Adnan’s Orkut profile says, I love mobiles, friends, my mother, fast driving, humorous, good looking, wanna become a pilot etc. Two or three weeks back he came in contact with Angel, a profile created by someone by utilizing the name of a girl. Scrapbooks of Adnan and Angel revealed that they were continuously talking to each other. According to scrapbooks, Angel was continuously insisting Adnan to meet her, but Adnan wanted Angel’s photograph first, which was never sent by her. In reply Angel said " Don’s worry? m quite & gud looking, u wanna meet me??? Lez mette up na! wot say?" Finally on Saturday Adnan replied that he wanted to meet her, which became the cause of his death.

Sixteen-year-old was kidnapped last Saturday and then he was allegedly strangulated by his friends. On Monday evening Adnan was found dead in Navi Mumbai. Death of Adnan Patrawala has greatly shocked his family members and shockwaves have spread across the city.

Adnan was allegedly trapped and subsequently murdered by his own friends. Adnan Patrawala left his home on Saturday night to have a good time with his friends. By 12.30 am he called up her mother that he was in pool club with his friends so he would come back home in the morning. On Sunday noon, Adnan’s parents got a call from his mobile itself and the person on the other side told them that they had abducted Adnan, he was fine and they wanted two crores as ransom. Even Adnan talked with his parents and told them that he was fine.

Earlier Adnan’s parents thought that it was a prank but after few hours next call came, this time the abductors said strongly that they were not joking and demanded Rs two crores. After getting the call, Adnan’s parents registered a case of abduction in the nearby police station; eventually the police started the investigation. On Monday the police arrested three of Adnan’s friends Sujith Nair (28 yrs), Ayush Bhat (19 yrs) and Himmesh Ambavat (18 yrs) who confessed that they murdered Adnan Patrawala.

Sujith Nair is an ex-employee of a BPO while Ayush Bhat and Himmesh Ambavat are college-going students and they came in contact with Adnan through Orkut. Eventually the confession of three boys led the police to his Skoda car and his body in Navi Mumbai. By 7 pm the Mumbai police disclosed that Adnan Patrawal has been murdered and TV News channels flashed the news of his death.

Police investigations revealed that Adnan was trapped on Orkut by making a false profile, Angel. When police accessed Orkut, they found that someone had tampered with Adnan’s profile and his picture album, videos and all scraps before 20th August have been deleted. What is more startling is that even after the news of Adnan’s murder, someone was operating his Orkut profile. As the news of his death was flashed by the channels, hundreds of complimentary messages started coming on Orkut like ‘God bless your soul’, ‘May Peace be upon you’ and so on.

However, now the family members of Adnan are saying that they have made a big mistake by informing the police about his abduction. According to them the police had disclosed the matter, which became the cause of Adnan’s death. Now the big question is who is Angel, what is his/ her identity? Messages on Adnan’s scrapbook clearly depicts that Angel’s profile could be a fake one. In fact, Adnan’s case is not a new issue, earlier also many youngsters have been trapped through Orkut in the name of friendship. Now again the question arises, who is responsible for Adnan’s death? I think Orkut is somehow responsible for it. We all know that cyber crime is rising all over the world nowadays and governments of the respective countries are trying hard to control it. So it is the responsibly of Google that before letting anyone become a member of it, Google should ask for some genuine documents and identity proof to avoid such unfortunate circumstances.

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Orkut: Beware of cyber crime