“He asked for help after telling her that his phone battery was dead and that he needed to make an urgent call. He also managed to exchange numbers with the girl,” the officer said. (Representational Image)
A 25-year-old merchant navy officer has been arrested for allegedly stalking and harassing a student of a Delhi University college, in southeast Delhi’s Amar Colony. The arrest was made on Friday evening and the accused was sent to three-day judicial custody to Tihar Jail on Saturday, after being produced before a Delhi court.
DCP (southeast) Chinmoy Biswal said, “We have arrested the accused, identified as Suraj Dey, a resident of Amar Colony, after we received a complaint. Investigation is underway. We will take further action if we receive any other complaint.” A senior police officer said the complainant first met the accused a few months ago in a park, and Dey introduced himself as a merchant navy officer.
“He asked for help after telling her that his phone battery was dead and that he needed to make an urgent call. He also managed to exchange numbers with the girl,” the officer said.
Investigation revealed that after some weeks, he started messaging her on WhatsApp and sent requests to her on social networking websites. “He later proposed to her, but she turned him down. He then started stalking her, sending her messages online, and even threatned her with dire consequences,” an officer said. The complainant alleged that he continued to stalk her, and when she confronted him, started misbehaving with her.
“Initially, the complainant tried to avoid him by blocking his phone number and his profile on websites. But he kept calling her from unknown numbers and harassing her,” a police officer said. On the basis of the girl’s complaint, a case was registered under IPC sections 354-D (stalking), 506 (threatening) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) at Amar Colony police station.
“After lodging an FIR, police started their investigation and, with the help of technical surveillance, arrested the accused. During questioning, the accused told police he used to approach women in public using the same method,” a police officer said.