27-year-old arrested for stalking, making lewd gestures at college student in Powai
The accused, Kalpesh Deodhar, had been arrested for a similar offence in 2011 (Representational Image)
The police on Tuesday arrested a 27-year-old biker for allegedly stalking and making lewd gestures at a college going girl in Powai last week.
According to the girl’s complaint, the accused allegedly stalked her on his bike when she was returning along with her friends from their college in Powai around 11:45 am last Thursday.
He then allegedly made lewd gestures and also used vulgar language in front of them. The biker fled after the girls started screaming at him.
Following the incident, the girl and her friends called the police control room and alerted about the incident. Later, a woman officer from Powai police station visited the victim’s house and took the complaint.
The unidentified biker was later booked by Powai police under sections 354 (d) (stalking) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code.
Under IPC section 354 (d), the maximum punishment is up to three years, while under section 509, a person faces imprisonment for up to one year.
Since the biker was not wearing a helmet at the time, the police sought CCTV footage of the area around Eternia Building near Galleria Mall, where the incident took place.
They also managed to get the registration number of the man’s bike and based on it, they obtained his name and other details from the RTO.
The police subsequently nabbed him from Deonar village road in Govandi and arrested him last night. The accused was identified as Kalpesh Deodhar, a resident of suburban Malad.
During investigation, it came to light that Deodhar was earlier arrested by the D N Nagar police in 2011 for a similar offence.
The police claimed that they also found many lewd messages on his mobile phone which he apparently used to send to girls. As a result, he has also been booked under relevant sections of The Information Technology Act.
A probe is now underway to find out as to how many girls he allegedly harassed with such messages.
