Crank calls torment women teachers

SURAT: The city police have finally zeroed in on a man in Rajasthan, who has traumatized women faculties at a prominent city-based engineering college with calls threatening to obscenely morph their photographs, for almost a year.
At least four female teachers of the college located in Athwalines have been pounded with calls, mostly at night. The caller threatened to circulate their morphed pictures if they did not talk with him.
Shockingly, it has taken the city police to lodge a complaint, a month after one of the victims approached the police station. The woman has alleged that the policemen asked her to go home and change her number if she felt so traumatized. She and other teachers then approached social worker Geeta Shroff, who sought intervention of senior police officials.
Umra police ultimately lodged a complaint on November 5 and booked the caller under IPC 503 (criminal intimidation) and section 509 (insulting modesty of a woman) as well as section 67 of the Information Technology Act.
Nipurna Torwane, additional police commissioner (Range 2) told TOI: "We have traced the caller and a team will be sent to Rajasthan soon to arrest him."
Asked if action would be taken against policemen who refused to lodge the complaint initially, she said, "If the policemen involved are found guilty, stringent action will be taken against them too. Such behaviour won't be tolerated."
The woman lecturer who lodged the complaint told TOI:, "My colleague and I were getting as many as 50-60 calls and some ambiguous messages. However, when we went to lodge a complaint, we were made to sit for three hours. I was also asked to change my number."
Shroff said, "I have myself undergone the trauma of such crank calls and I understand how difficult it is for these young women. I spoke to some senior police officials who then directed lodging a complaint."
"It is unfortunate that this form of teasing is not taken seriously by police too. They generally ask victims to change the number and forget about it," said Shroff.