Mumbai: A 36-year-old man was arrested from Mira Road for allegedly stalking and sending lewd messages to six women employed in a Khar office on Friday. The accused, identified as Shubham Sawant, had created a fake profile on social media, using a misleading identity of a woman and sent them lewd messages repeatedly. The arrest was made by Khar Police, who had booked him under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act.
The accused, Shubham Sawant alias Santosh Karpe, 36, an educated man, who stays with his wife at Mira Road in Palghar district, had easy access to his partner's phone. A few months ago, Sawant used his wife's phone to take numbers of six of her female colleagues with an intention to harass them. Accordingly, Sawant procured a SIM card with a fake identity and made a profile on Facebook and WhatsApp, with a profile photo of a woman, said police.
Sawant contacted these women and began chatting on the pretext of being a woman. He soon began sending them lewd messages on social media and cyberstalked them on various social media platforms. Having a good background and sound knowledge of social media, nobody suspected Sawant of committing such a crime. However, after the women complained at Khar Police station, based on technical evidence, it was revealed that Sawant was the culprit and he was placed under arrest.
"During the probe, we learnt that Sawant had previously committed similar crimes and was a history-sheeter. The other number and phone that he used were solely for the purpose of stalking, harassing women and sending them lewd calls or messages. We are now trying to ascertain if he had targeted any other women," said Gajanan Kabdule, senior inspector of Khar police station.
