Man held for sending lewd messages to woman TV news anchor

Mumbai police have arrested a 40 -year-old man from West Bengal for allegedly sending obscene messages on Facebook to a woman anchor of a television news channel here, an official said Sunday.

Cuffe Parade police arrested the accused, identified as Atanu Ravindra Kumar, an unemployed man, the official said.

The incident came to light after the TV anchor approached the Cuffe Parade police station a few days ago, he said.

"In the complaint, she said that the accused was sending obscene messages to her from his Facebook profile. When she blocked him, he created three more profiles and again started sending similar messages," he added.

Thereafter, the victim shared the matter with her husband, following which the latter rebuked the accused online. But after that he started sending abusive messages to the couple, the official said.

Fed up with the online harassment, the anchor lodged a complaint with Cuffe Parade police against him, he said.

Accordingly an offence was registered under IPC sections 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 506 (criminal intimidation), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of IPC and section 66 of Information and Technology Act.

During the probe, police found that the Facebook account had been created in West Bangal. Accordingly, a team went there and arrested the accused, he said.

Kumar was produced before a court Saturday, which remanded him in police custody till Tuesday, the official said.