Hell hath no fury like a woman troubled over phone

The Crime Branch officers said on November 15,Khan in his complaint said that two days earlier he was walking in Malwani when Lakshmi reached there with Gupta. She allegedly threatened Khan and made him board an autorickshaw.

After threatening him further,the two allegedly looted his mobile phone and Rs 25,000 in cash that he was carrying and fled after dropping him off at a distance. Khan told the police that he did not know the accused.

The police officers who were investigating the case scanned the call records of the complainant and began tracing the calls that Khan had received that day. “We found a number that was Lakshmi’s. We traced the call and learnt her location to be Malad station from where we arrested her,” said Chinmaji Adhav,assistant police inspector of Crime Branch unit 11.

The officers were stunned when Lakshmi told them the motive behind the crime. On July 7,Lakshmi had reportedly received a lewd call from Khan. He had claimed that he got her number from a public toilet and wanted to have sex with her.

Lakshmi dismissed it as a prank call. However,for two months she received calls from Khan daily,she told investigators. Lakshmi,a sales person,had given her number to various people for business purposes. She then reportedly blocked Khan’s number,but later bought a new phone that did not have the call block facility.

In October,Khan allegedly began making lewd calls again. However,instead of telling her parents or the police,Lakshmi told her brother-in-law.

The two then made a plan to teach Khan a lesson. Lakshmi called him up and invited him to meet her near the cremation ground in Malwani. The two then arrived there and made Khan sit in an autorickshaw. “They were about to take him to the police station,however Khan begged them to let him go. The two then looted Khan and left him there,” said an officer.

The two have been handed over to the Malwani police. “We are looking into the case and have arrested Lakshmi and Gupta. However,we will investigate to find out whether the complainant made lewd calls to her. The woman should have come to us instead of kidnapping and looting Khan,” said a police officer from Malwani police station.