Lucknow businessman arrested for stalking, harassing Congress leader: Cops
Police said the suspect deleted his social media accounts and deactivated the SIM cards soon after the complainant posted the numbers on her social media account.
A 54-year-old businessman from Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow has been arrested for allegedly stalking, sexually harassing, and threatening a Congress spokesperson by posting “objectionable” and “abusive” comments on social media, Delhi Police said on Thursday.
Police said the arrested businessman is not officially associated with any political party.
The businessman, Rajesh Shrivastava, a distributor of cosmetic items, was arrested on Wednesday from his Lucknow home following investigation into a case filed at the Tughlak Road police station on the Congress spokesperson’s complaint on Monday.
He has been brought to Delhi for further probe, deputy commissioner of police (New Delhi) Madhur Verma said.
“The case was registered under sections 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 506 (criminal intimidation) of Indian Penal Code and section 67 (punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of Information Technology (IT) Act,” Verma said.
The woman posted the suspect’s “obscene and threatening” messages on her social media account last week. She had tagged DCP Verma and Delhi Police in her post, asking for appropriate action against the suspect.
The complainant had been receiving such direct messages on her social media account for more than a fortnight from two separate unknown mobile phone numbers, police said.
Police said the suspect deleted his social media accounts and deactivated the SIM cards soon after the complainant posted the numbers on her social media account.
During investigation, a senior police officer associated with the case said, investigators found the suspect had created fake social media accounts and was using it to send “objectionable messages” regularly. The cellphone numbers he had used to create the profiles were obtained on forged documents, the officer said. “We established the suspect’s identity through electronic surveillance and his whereabouts. Once his residential address in Lucknow was confirmed, we sent our team and caught Shrivastava from his home,” the officer added.
According to the officer, Shrivastava told interrogators he was following the spokesperson’s updates on social media and did not like her comments on right-wing leaders.