Instagram harassment: complaint, evidence and the law in India

By Advocate Panchanand Shaw, Bar Council of West Bengal · Published 2 Nov 2026 · Cyber crime

Instagram harassment in India is prosecuted, not merely moderated. Persistent messaging after a clear refusal, monitoring of a woman's online activity, sexual comments, morphed images, threats, and accounts created to humiliate someone all fall within the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and several of them also fall within the Information Technology Act, 2000. The practical problem for a victim is not the absence of law. It is that the conduct arrives in fragments, on a platform with no office in the city, and the first police response is often that nothing can be done.

That response is wrong, and it can be answered with a specific section, a dated record and a written complaint. This guide sets out which provision fits which behaviour, what to preserve before the account disappears, and what to do when the local station will not register a case.

The conduct first, then the section

Indian law approaches online harassment through the behaviour, not the platform. The same Instagram message can be stalking, sexual harassment, criminal intimidation or defamation depending on what it says and how often it comes. Getting the characterisation right at the complaint stage matters, because a station that reads the facts as a quarrel will not register a case, while a station that reads them as stalking under Section 78 will.

Two of those need explanation. Section 78 of the BNS is the stalking provision, and it specifically covers a man who monitors the use by a woman of the internet, email or any other form of electronic communication. Watching her stories, tracking her login times, or maintaining a second account to follow her after being blocked is the kind of conduct the clause describes. Section 79 covers words, gestures or objects intended to insult modesty, and it expressly extends to intruding on a woman's privacy, which is why unsolicited sexual messages sent to an Instagram inbox are typically charged under it.

Where the images are intimate and were shared without consent, the IT Act provisions run alongside. Section 66E covers capturing or publishing the image of a private area without consent, and Section 67 covers obscene material in electronic form. If the person in the image is a child, Section 67B of the IT Act and the POCSO Act, 2012 apply, and the matter must be treated as a child sexual abuse material case from the first report, not as harassment with an aggravating feature.

What is not, by itself, an offence

A single rude comment, a critical review, an argument you joined, or someone disagreeing with you publicly is not harassment in law. Nor is a message you find unpleasant, if it carries no sexual content, no threat and no repetition after a refusal. Section 352 of the BNS punishes intentional insult that provokes a breach of the peace, and courts read it narrowly for exactly this reason: ordinary rudeness on a public platform is not enough, and complaints framed that way are the ones that get closed.

Consent and context change the analysis. A direct message from a stranger is not automatically an offence; the same message after you have said no, repeated over weeks, is. A parody account is not automatically impersonation; an account that uses your name and photograph to solicit money is. Being precise about this at the outset is what separates a complaint that proceeds from one that is filed and forgotten.

Preserve the evidence before you respond

The instinct to reply, to shame the person publicly, or to delete the conversation is strong and it destroys the case. Evidence of online harassment has a short half-life: accounts are deleted, messages are unsent, and stories expire. Preserve first, then decide what to do.

1. Screen-record the thread. Start the recording before you open the profile and scroll slowly through the conversation from the earliest message to the latest, including the handle, the display name and the timestamps. A continuous recording is far stronger than a set of still images because it shows sequence and excludes splicing.
2. Capture the profile as a whole. The bio, follower count, the posts that identify the person, and the account URL. Do not crop. Note the numeric account ID if you can see it, because display names and handles are changed routinely.
3. Keep the original device. Do not factory-reset the phone, do not clear the app cache, and do not delete the Instagram app. Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 requires the electronic record to be produced with a certificate, and the original device is what makes that certificate meaningful.
4. Log the pattern in writing. A simple table of date, time, account, what was said and what you did in response turns a confusing experience into a chronology an officer can read in two minutes. It also demonstrates the repetition that Section 78 requires.
5. Save the aftermath too. Screenshots of mutual friends being contacted, of the same person reappearing on a new account, or of comments on your other posts are all part of the pattern and are often the most probative material.

If intimate images are involved, do not re-share them with anyone, including a friend for advice. Send them only to the police, through the channel the officer specifies, and ask that they be kept in a sealed cover. Re-sharing, even to expose the person, can expose you to a prosecution under Section 67 or 67A of the IT Act.

The complaint, step by step

Start inside Instagram, using the three-dot menu on the profile or the message, and choose Report. For messages, use the option to report the conversation and then restrict or block the account. Blocking is not a substitute for reporting, but it does stop the contact while the complaint is processed. The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 require a grievance officer, acknowledgement within twenty-four hours and resolution within fifteen days, so keep the acknowledgement and the ticket number.

Then file on cybercrime.gov.in under the category for social media crime, or for women and child related crime where that category fits. Upload the recording, the screenshots and your chronology. The portal routes the complaint to the appropriate unit, and the acknowledgement number is the reference you will quote everywhere afterwards.

Then give a written complaint at the police station where the offence occurred or where you reside, as the BNSS permits for cognizable offences. Address it to the officer in charge, state the facts with dates, name the sections, and attach an index of documents. Ask for the FIR number and a certified copy on the spot. Under Section 173 of the BNSS, 2023, information disclosing a cognizable offence must be registered, and the officer cannot decide that the matter is too small to investigate.

If the station declines, ask for the reasons in writing, then apply to the Magistrate under Section 175(3) of the BNSS, 2023 for a direction to investigate. If you fear retaliation or the accused is likely to flee, ask the investigating officer for protection and, in an urgent case, approach the High Court under Section 528 of the BNSS, 2023 where a process is being abused. A woman complainant may also approach the National Commission for Women or the State Commission, which can take up the complaint with the police, though neither substitutes for an FIR.

What decides whether the case moves

The first factor is documentation of repetition. A single abusive message is a weak case; forty messages across three weeks, with your refusal in the middle, is a strong one. The second is identification. A handle alone gives the police a requisition to send; a handle plus a phone number, a linked public profile, a mutual friend who knows the person, or a payment record gives them a target.

The third is the seriousness of the conduct as framed. Sexual content, threats and intimate images get priority attention because the sections carry higher punishment and the risk of escalation is obvious. General rudeness does not, whatever it cost you emotionally. The fourth is your own conduct after the incident. If you posted the accused's details publicly, argued with him for two weeks, or asked friends to message him, the defence will use that to recast the case as a dispute between two willing participants.

Courts also weigh delay. Reporting a year-old thread is not fatal, but it invites the question why nothing was said at the time, and the answer should be in the complaint rather than improvised in court. Where the accused is known and the material is documentary, these cases are usually decided on the electronic record, so the accuracy of that record is the whole case.

Mistakes that weaken a genuine complaint

Do not negotiate with the person through a friend, and do not accept a promise to delete the account in exchange for dropping the complaint. Do not create a second account to gather more evidence after blocking him; it undermines the claim that the contact was unwanted. Do not edit screenshots to highlight the worst parts, and do not reconstruct a conversation from memory into a fresh chat.

Do not name and shame on your own profile with photographs and phone numbers. If the identification is wrong, you have committed defamation under Section 356 of the BNS and possibly published private information in breach of the IT Act. Report to the platform and the police, and let them do the identification.

When to involve a lawyer

Most first complaints can be made without one. A lawyer helps where the police have closed the complaint without an FIR, where the accused is a colleague or relative and the case will be contested, where counter-complaints are likely, or where intimate images have been circulated and urgent takedown and preservation orders are needed. A cyber lawyer in West Bengal can draft the Section 175(3) application and appear before the Magistrate, and if you are the person accused of harassment, the guide to criminal defence in cyber cases explains how the same electronic record is tested from the other side.

Frequently asked questions

Information for general guidance only and not legal advice. Provisions cited follow the Information Technology Act 2000, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023.

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