2 held for harassing, stalking principal in Mumbai – Hindustan Times

The Wadala police have arrested two men for allegedly sexually harassing and stalking a 35-year-old principal of a city-based college. Both the accused made several voice and video calls to the woman demanding sexual favours.

The accused have been identified as Suraj Siddharth Kambale, 25, a resident of Ghansoli, Navi Mumbai and Manoj Laxman Devrukhkar, 31, who is married and lives with his family in Ulhasnagar. Both are friends and work in private firms, while the complainant is a resident of Navi Mumbai and works in a Mumbai college.

According to the Wadala police, Kambale had seen the complainant woman’s number written on the wall of a public toilet in Juinagar, Navi Mumbai, mentioning her as a call girl. Kambale informed Devrukhkar and the two decided to contact her.

“Since December 30, 2020, the two called the woman several times and demanded sexual favours. The two harassed her for over a week. The complainant finally approached police and on January 7. We registered a case against the two accused,” said Shahaji Shinde, senior inspector of Wadala police station.

Initially, the complainant suspected that her college students could be behind this, but no college student found involved.

The two accused who were identified with the help of their phone numbers, would make only data-based calls and keep their phone switch-off to avoid getting tracked.

“To draw them out we laid a honeytrap. Kambale was contacted by a woman who lured him into meeting her at a pre-decided location at a hotel. The accused fell prey to it and was nabbed on January 8,” said inspector Mahendra Kaldoke.

Devrukhkar was also arrested later on. Their cell phones have been seized and would be sent to the forensic lab, Shinde said.

Both have been charged with sections 354A (sexual harassment), 354D (stalking) of Indian Penal Code and 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act.

The thorough scanning of the seized phones would reveal if the accused have similarly harassed other women too, Kaldoke said.