Mumbai Crime: Two arrested for harassing, stalking college principal

Picture used for representational purpose only

The Wadala police arrested two men for allegedly harassing and stalking a 35-year-old principal of a city-based college. Police officials said that both the accused made several voice and video calls to the woman demanding sexual favours.

According to a report in Hindustan Times, the accused have been identified as Suraj Siddharth Kambale (25), a resident of Ghansoli, Navi Mumbai, and Manoj Laxman Devrukhkar (31), who is married and lives with his family in Ulhasnagar. Both are friends and work in private firms, while the complainant is a resident of Navi Mumbai, a police officer said.

According to officials from Wadala police station, Kambale had seen the complainant's number written on the wall of a public toilet in Juinagar, Navi Mumbai, which mentioned her as a 'call girl'. Kambale then informed Devrukhkar and the two decided to contact her.

Shahaji Shinde, senior inspector of Wadala police station, said, "Since December 30, 2020, the two called the woman several times and demanded sexual favours. The two harassed her for over a week. The complainant finally approached the police and on January 7 we registered a case against the two accused."

In the beginning, the woman suspected that her college students could be behind this, however, no college student were found involved. The two accused, who were identified with the help of their phone numbers, used to make only data-based calls to the complainant and kept their phone switched-off most of the time to avoid getting tracked.

"We laid a honeytrap to catch them. Kambale was contacted by a woman, who lured him into meeting her at a pre-decided location at a hotel. The accused fell prey to it and was nabbed on January 8," inspector Mahendra Kaldoke said.

Later, Devrukhkar was also arrested. Their cell phones have been seized and would be sent to the forensic lab, Shinde added. Both the accused have been booked Sections 354A (sexual harassment), 354D (stalking) of the Indian Penal Code, and Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act.

The thorough scanning of the seized phones would reveal if the accused have similarly harassed other women too, inspector Kaldoke said.