Man held for harassing ex-cricketer's daughter over phone

Mumbai, PTI: A 32-year-old man was arrested from West Bengal for allegedly harassing a former cricketer's 20-year-old daughter over the phone, the police said on Sunday.

The accused, identified as Devkumar Mitti, allegedly made several calls to the landlline number of the cricketer, a resident of suburban Bandra, in December last year, a police official said.

Mitti would tell the cricketer's domestic help who attended the calls that he will kidnap the young woman and marry her, he said.

According to the police, the accused used to tell the domestic help that he had seen the cricketer's daughter on television and would pass lewd comments about her.

As per preliminary investigation, Mitti, a school dropout, got the cricketer's landline number from the internet, a police officer said.

A case was registered a few days ago after the cricketer's manager approached the police.

During the investigation, the police traced the caller's location to West Bengal and dispatched a team that arrested him on Saturday.

Confirming the development, senior police officer Paramjit Singh Dahiya said Mitti was picked from the district of Midnapore.

He was being brought to Mumbai.

Mitti has been booked under sections 354 D (offence of stalking), 507 (criminal intimidation by anonymous communication), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC, Dahiya said, adding that further investigation is on.