Prop artist arrested for making obscene video calls to unknown women

A prop artist working in Film City in Mumbai has been arrested for making obscene video calls to over 200 women across the country. He used a mobile app to find women's numbers and would make video calls to them while naked. He has been booked under several sections of the Indian Penal Code and the IT Act.

MUMBAI: Police have arrested a prop artist working in Film City for allegedly making obscene video calls to over 200 women across the country. The accused was identified as Pankaj Ravindra Vishwakarma, a resident of Veer Savarkar Road in Virar east. The arrest was made by the Mira-Bhayander-Vasai-Virar crime branch on Monday night, following intimation from the cyber crime unit of Giridih police station in Jharkhand.

HT Image

Police officials from Giridih informed crime branch officers on Monday morning that a woman had lodged a complaint against an unidentified man who had been calling her on WhatsApp and indulging in obscene gestures. Giridih police then traced the number to Virar and provided all details to crime branch officers in Mumbai.

“We reached the address provided by them but did not find the accused there. So asked local shop keepers and garage employees, who led us to his house,” said Pramod Badakh, senior police inspector from the crime branch.

On questioning, Vishwakarma told the police that he used to enter 10 random digits on the mobile app ‘Truecaller.’ If the numbers appeared to belong to women, he saved them and made WhatsApp video calls to them when he was naked.

Vishwakarma further told the police that he had bought a new smart phone to undertake such activities. He also confessed that he had called at least 200 women across the country and flashed at them in the preceding two months. He has been booked under sections 354 (a), 354 (d), 506 of the Indian Penal Code and section 67 (a) of the Information Technology Act.

Crime branch officers contacted police officials in Giridih after Vishwakarma’s arrest to hand him over to them. But they gave a notice to Vishwakarma, asking him to be present at the police station for questioning.