Mumbai police nab Udupi man for sending lewd SMSs to actresses

Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi

Udupi, Oct 11: A person hailing from Udupi has been nabbed by the Mumbai city crime branch police for allegedly sending obscene text messages to over 30 women, including film actresses, models and businesswomen.

The accused has been identified as Harish Padmanabha Bhat (31), a diploma holder in computers, employed with a computer dealer.

He was arrested after a woman from Andheri in Mumbai filed a complaint stating that she was receiving vulgar messages from an unknown number. She received several messages between August 18 and September 28, and deciding to put an end to it, she approached the police.

The police also said that apart from the woman, several other celebrity women had also complained about receiving lewd messages over the past six months. On investigating, the number was traced to Udupi. Bhat's house was located and he was taken to Mumbai for interrogation, after which he was arrested.

It is learnt that he was using two China-made handsets for sending the messages. During interrogation, he revealed that he got the phone numbers of the women on internet while working at a call centre in Mangalore.

The police seized a laptop, a dual SIM card phone, two SIM cards, data card other items.

Bhat worked as a sales executive for computer hardware firm during the day, and sent lewd messages to women celebrities at night, sources said. Bhat admitted that he sent the messages for fun as he used to get a kick out it. Sources said that apart from obscene text messages, he would even send video clips to top Bollywood actresses.

Bhat has been booked under the IT Act and remanded in the custody of Mumbai police till October 15.