E-Paper
Auto driver held for harassing women state-wide over phone
He had acquired a SIM card using forged documents. He used to dial numbers randomly and then save the numbers if the calls were received by women. He then used to call the numbers continuously trying to strike a conversion or indulge in indecent talk.
A joint team of the Women’s Powerline and Dhumanganj police arrested an auto driver from a Prayagraj locality, for harassing women in different districts of the state, including Lucknow, by sending them obscene messages.
The Women’s Powerline had received 67 complaints from different women against the auto driver identified as Vinod Srivastava.
An FIR has been lodged against him under the IT Act and other relevant sections of the IPC after his arrest, Dhumanganj police station SHO inspector Anupam Sharma said.
Many women registered their complaint on 1090, including 17 women from Lucknow. After receiving these complaints about calls made from the same number, police put the number on electronic surveillance. Police traced the location of the number and its user to Dhumanganj locality of Prayagraj.
On Tuesday, a team of Women’s Powerline reached Prayagraj and, backed by the Dhumanganj police, arrested Srivastava from his residence in the Dhumanganj area. Srivastava confessed to calling and messaging women and harassing them.
Srivastava had acquired a SIM card using forged identification documents. He used to dial numbers randomly and then save the numbers if the calls were received by women. He then used to call the numbers continuously trying to strike a conversion or indulge in indecent talk. He had 17 complaints against him from women in Lucknow, 12 from Kanpur, six from Prayagraj, five from Ballia, four from Sitapur, three from Barabanki along with some complaints also from Rae Bareli, Unnao, Gorakhpur, Gonda, Jalaun, Eta, Jhansi, Mirzapur, Azamgarh, Ambedkar Nagar, Sultanpur, Itawa, Farrukhabad, Varanasi and Gazipur districts of the state, said Inspector Anupam Sharma.
During questioning Srivastava said that he also used to stalk women on social media sites and take their mobile numbers if available on their social media accounts. He used to send obscene messages to women and even threaten them from other mobile numbers if they blocked his calls and messages, police added.
