Pharmacist arrested for harassing woman scribe on Facebook

NOIDA: The police on Friday arrested a 40-year-old man for using social media to allegedly harass a woman journalist from Noida. According to the victim, the accused allegedly posted obscene messages demanding sexual favours on her Facebook profile on March 7.

The 24-year-old victim alleged that the accused repeatedly sent her messages on Facebook, which she initially tried to ignore. “He had tried contacting me earlier also by sending messages on Facebook. However, I never replied. This time he posted directly on my wall,” she said.

According to police officials, the accused Lalit Kumar is a pharmacist who owns a shop in West Vinod Nagar area of Delhi. The FIR registered by the woman levies section 354d (stalking) of IPC against the accused, police officials said.

“The accused has no previous criminal record,” said Amit Kumar Singh, station house officer of Noida Phase III police station.

The victim, however, alleged that there was a delay of over a week in registering the FIR over the matter. She claimed that she could only file her complaint on the women’s helpline on the fourth attempt.

“They would transfer my call from one department to the other. Even while registering the FIR, there was an issue of jurisdiction as my office and residence are under different police stations. This is the reason that there was a delay of almost a week in even registering the FIR. It was finally registered on March 16,” she said.

Police officials, however, denied that there was any delay. “There was a minor problem in clarifying her address. That is all. Once it was done, the FIR was registered,” said Singh.

The woman claimed that the only reason action was taken was because the SSP had called up the officials of the Phase III police station after she wrote posts about the alleged harassment on Facebook and Twitter.

“I had to take to social media in order to get justice,” she said.

“They have only charged him over the stalking on Facebook. His real crime is demanding sexual favours, which is a more severe issue. I am disappointed with the way things unfolded. But at least, he has been arrested.”

Officials said the accused will remain in custody and will be produced before a court.