Mumbai: 22-year-old youth arrested for sending obscene messages to females

The arrested accused, identified as Harsh Gindra, was residing in the Pushpark area of Malad east.

The Malad Police has arrested a 22-year-old youth who allegedly used to send obscene messages to unknown women and girls. Following the complaint of a 14-year-old student's mother, a case was registered last year at Malad police station under sections 454(d), 509, 506 of IPC and section 67 of IT Act, also section 12 of POSCO Act since then the police was looking for him.

The accused only used to send messages and make WhatsApp calls to the victims, which is why it took time for the police to reach him under the guidance of DCP Ajay Kumar Bansal Zone XII and senior inspector Ravindra Adhane PSI Dheeraj Waykos of Malad cyber cell caught the accused from Somwari Bazaar area yesterday, said an officer.

The arrested accused, identified as Harsh Gindra, was residing in the Pushpark area of Malad east. During interrogation, he told police that, "other boys have girlfriends, no one likes him, and he wanted that he should also have a girlfriend, so he used to send messages randomly to the girls and women he obtained their numbers from an application -- "search nearby friends" -- from the play store and obtaining from bio-data of the women and girls who uploaded for their marriages on Matrimonial Websites.

"The accused has sent WhatsApp messages to the 14-year-old student, and many a time, when she did not reply he stole the victim's photos from her WhatsApp DP and put the same as his DP and also send the same photo to the victims and used to threaten her that he would make them viral in social media," the officer added.

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The accused used to send obscene texts as well as voice messages and a couple of times, he tried to video call the victim but she did not pick up the call and blocked him.

We seized two mobile phones and 4 sim cards from the accused's possession which had the maximum number of women and girls and saved their names that appear on the true caller application.

Other family members of the accused are well settled and educated. He remains uneducated and used to work as a delivery boy supplying dirking water bottles to the various police station including the Malad police station.

He has been booked and arrested and was produced before the session court today. The court remanded him police custody, said another officer.