Lewd calls, SMSes to widow lands man in jail

Days after she lost her husband to jaundice last September, Sarita Patil (name changed on request) started receiving obscene calls and text messages on her mobile phone. The police finally caught the culprit Ravindra Bansode, 41, a resident of Sassoon Dock, Colaba, last week.

“Bansode was earlier employed with Speedman Courier, which is in the vicinity of the victim’s house. He knew that she had recently lost her husband and started harassing her by making obscene and lewd calls from a public call office and his mobile phone,” said an officer from LT Marg police station.

On May 10, Patil, who lives at Cavel Cross Lane near Chira Bazaar, filed a complaint with the LT Marg police.
“We kept the mobile number from which the victim was receiving calls on surveillance and traced it to Bansode. We arrested him on Saturday night, but we are yet to recover the phone that he used to make the calls,” the officer added.

Bansode has been booked under sections 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication), 509 (insulting the modesty of a woman) and relevant sections of Information and Technology Act.