A film actress has lodged a complaint on Friday against an unidentified man, who allegedly masturbated over a video call made to her repeatedly. The actress approached Versova Police, who have booked an unidentified accused under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Information Technology (IT) Act. In a similar incident, the actress had lodged a complaint last year, wherein the arrest was made after thorough investigation.
According to the actress, she received a WhatsApp video call on Friday afternoon from an unidentified number, which she disconnected twice and accidentally answered the third time, only to see that a man was masturbating on the video call. The actress quickly took screenshots of the call to lodge a complaint and hanged up. The accused then messaged the actress, addressing her by name, on why was she not coming on screen and hiding her face, further stating that she 'liked it' before.
The irate actress asked the accused as to when do she like it, only to be sent a thread of messages saying that he was calling his friend and had accidentally called her instead. When the actress demanded an explanation, he claimed that he was a 20-year-old student studying abroad. "I did not believe a word he said and approached police to lodge a complaint. Last year also, a similar incident had occurred wherein I had received lewd video calls from eight numbers. An FIR was filed then as well," said the actress.
Police officer said that while they have booked the unidentified accused under relevant sections of the IPC and IT Act for sexual harassment (Section 354A) and word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman (Section 509), along with section 67A of the IT Act. "We are investigating the matter and have put his number in the system to search for leads. No arrest has been made," said Raghvendra Thakur, senior inspector of Versova police station.
