Pune resident makes 4,500 lewd calls to Mumbai hotel, arrested

According to the police, the accused, identified as Prasad Mane, works as an office boy at a college in Pune.

Sahar police arrested a 32-year-old Pune resident on Saturday for allegedly making around 4,500 lewd phone calls to an Andheri-based five-star hotel since December last year.

A 32-year-old man made 4,500 lewd phone calls to a hotel and harassed the receptionist of the hotel. (iStockphoto)

According to the police, the accused, identified as Prasad Mane, works as an office boy at a college in Pune. He would first make calls and ask the receptionist about details of the hotel and the facilities it provided. However, later he began making the calls to harass her, the police said.

Later, after she left the job, he continued to make the calls to the hotel and ask for the woman.

“We discovered that the accused had made around 4,500 calls to the Andheri hotel and indulged in perverse talks with the staffers there. He would ask for a particular receptionist who worked with the hotel earlier,” Shashikant Mane, senior inspector of Sahar police station, said.

When the hotel staff informed the accused that the woman had quit the job, Mane began passing obscene comments at the other staff members of the hotel. The executives of the hotel then informed her about the incident, following which she approached the police to file a complaint against Mane.

Based on her complaint, the police filed a first information report (FIR) under sections 354(a) (assault or criminal force on woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code. They traced Mane to Pune based on his phone call records.

“We suspect that the accused may have harassed other women in a similar manner and are questioning him further. We are also analysing his call data records,” said the officer.

Mane however, told the police that he had given the complainant some money, which she was not repaying and therefore, used to call her to get his money back. The complainant has denied Mane’s claim, the police said.

“We have seized the accused’s phone and two SIM cards and are awaiting his call details,” said Abhijeet Jadhav, who is investigating the case.