Autistic man who made 10,841 abusive calls to cops since 2020 detained

The Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) of the Mumbai crime branch on Wednesday detained the 22-year-old man and handed him over to the Azad Maidan police station where a case has been registered against him for making abusive calls to the Police Control room and abusing the women police constables on duty

Mumbai: A 22-year-old man suffering from autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was detained from Kurar area in Malad East for allegedly making 10,841 abusive calls to the Mumbai police control room since 2020.

The Azad Maidan police have issued him a notice under section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (notice of appearance before a police officer) and allowed him to go, as he suffers from a disorder, said the police officer. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) of the Mumbai crime branch on Wednesday detained the 22-year-old man and handed him over to the Azad Maidan police station where a case has been registered against him for making abusive calls to the Police Control room and abusing the women police constables on duty.

The case was registered in September 2022, and the man was booked for using words, gestures or acts intended to insult the modesty of a woman.

According to the police, since 2020, the calls were coming to the control room wherein the caller would use obscene and vulgar language while speaking to the police personnel, including women police constables, posted at the control room.

“However, it had become difficult to trace the caller, as the calls were being made as emergency calls from a cell phone which had no SIM card inserted in it,” said the police officer.

A team headed by senior inspector Milind Kate of the CIU finally managed to trace the accused with the help of mobile service providers after working on the case over several days.

“The apprehended person suffers from autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and is being treated for it. He is 25% affected by the disorder. As he kept on making random calls to people, his family had taken away his mobile phone. However, he found one old phone which didn’t even have a SIM card and used it to make calls to the police control room, as the control room numbers are treated as emergency numbers and the phone used to get connected to the nearest tower even without the SIM card,” said a police officer.

“Whenever he made the calls to the police control room, the calls were reflected as a ten-digit number consisting of 911 and the remaining seven digits from the IMEI number, because of which it had become very difficult for the CIU personnel to trace the caller,” said a police officer.

The Azad Maidan police have issued him a notice under section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (notice of appearance before a police officer) and allowed him to go, as he suffers from a disorder, said the police officer.