Two employees with a restaurant located in a mall in Sector 25 were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly harassing and stalking a 22-year-old mass communication student by sending her inappropriate messages.
The incident came to light on Tuesday evening, when the student went to the restaurant with some of her friends, located at Noida’s Spice Mall, to confront the suspects.
“I had gone to an eating joint for dinner on the night of March 4 at the Spice Mall. While paying for the meal, one of the employees asked for my phone number saying it was needed for feedback. I gave him a wrong number but he called in front of me to check it and when he could not get through, he asked me for my number again. I gave him the correct number and left,” the woman, a resident of sector 71, said.
She added she received a message on Whatsapp around 11.30pm for feedback. “Feedback messages don’t usually come on Whatsapp. I ignored it and after a while, a person sent a message saying his name was Himanshu Roy. He then sent me a very old photo of mine which he probably took from my social media accounts. I then blocked this number. The next day while I was in college, I received calls from an unknown number. He kept on asking me to meet him. I blocked this number as well. Then I started getting calls from another number after which I picked up the phone, shouted at the person and disconnected the call,” the woman alleged.
She said she told a few of her friends about the incident. “They asked me to go to the mall and confront the accused. We reached the place around 2.30pm. Pradeep Kumar, the man who had taken my number was there. He started making excuses. By then, the owner also reached there. We asked him to call Himanshu (who had called her up). Himanshu said he was in Sector 18 at the time. He came in an hour and a half. After questioning him, he confessed to sending the messages. He then pushed one of my friends and they got into an altercation. Someone called the police and all of us were asked to go to the police station,” the woman added.
{{/usCountry}}She said she told a few of her friends about the incident. “They asked me to go to the mall and confront the accused. We reached the place around 2.30pm. Pradeep Kumar, the man who had taken my number was there. He started making excuses. By then, the owner also reached there. We asked him to call Himanshu (who had called her up). Himanshu said he was in Sector 18 at the time. He came in an hour and a half. After questioning him, he confessed to sending the messages. He then pushed one of my friends and they got into an altercation. Someone called the police and all of us were asked to go to the police station,” the woman added.
{{/usCountry}}Four of the woman’s friends were booked by the Sector 24 police under Section 151 (arrest for preventing commission of an offence) of the CrPC. Based on her complaint, a case was registered against two of the restaurant employees under IPC Section 354d (stalking).
“The suspects, Pradeep Kumar (31) and Himanshu (21), have been arrested. Four persons were arrested for fighting publicly. Though the suspects have been sent to jail, we will conduct further probe to verify how long they had been working there, was any verification done before giving employment, etc. We will also question the staff to find out if such incidents have taken place in the past,” Pradeep Kumar Tripathi, SHO, Sector 24 police station, said.
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