Mumbai:
A man has been arrested for allegedly sexually harassing a woman and demanding Rs 5 lakh after a surrogacy contract between his female friend and another woman failed to take off, a crime branch official said on Saturday. The complainant woman had worked as a caretaker for surrogate mothers in Pune in the year 2011-12 and knew some of them, the official said.
She had referred one of them to a Mumbai-based couple. However, the contract between the couple and the woman willing to work as a surrogate mother couldn’t materialise due to some reason, he said.
In February this year, the victim, now settled in Mumbai, received a call from a man who identified himself as Raja. He told the victim that he was a friend of the couple and demanded Rs 5 lakh over the cancellation of the surrogacy deal, the official said.
The accused then started harassing the victim by frequently calling her on her mobile phone and stalking her through Facebook, WhatsApp,and other social media platforms, he said. He allegedly posted derogatory messages on the Facebook profile of the victim’s husband and demanded money, the official said.
Fed up with the harassment, the victim paid Rs 23,000 to the accused, he said, adding that she approached the Matunga police on Thursday. Crime Branch officials tracked the accused through technical analysis and his mobile tower location to Ulhasnagar in neighbouring Thane district and picked him up when he was trying to flee to Rajasthan, the official said.
The accused has admitted his role in the crime and handed over to Matunga Police. A case has been registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Information Technology Act.
