Mumbai:

A radio jockey (RJ) was harassed and threatened with sexual assault by a man who allegedly posed as a casting director and stole her phone. The Andheri police arrested the accused, Kishore Mohanty, on Monday.

Mrunmayee Manaja, an RJ with an FM channel, said she first met Mohanty on October 22. “Mohanty had contacted me over WhatsApp and introduced himself as a casting director for a web series. He gave me an acquaintance’s reference. I agreed to meet him at a Versova cafe,” she said. “He presented a business proposal and I asked a friend, RJ Abhinav Parashar, to join us. Later, Mohanty insisted on dropping us home in an autorickshaw.”

The duo alighted at Andheri (E), while Mohanty took the autorickshaw to his destination. Minutes later, Manaja checked her purse and pockets, but could not find her phone. She dialled her number from Parashar’s phone and it was answered by Mohanty. He told her that he had reached Mira Road and would return her phone the next day.

On October 23, when he kept avoiding her calls, Manaja and Parashar tracked her’s phone last location to Dahisar. They then went to Dahisar police station and made several calls to Mohanty, but he ignored them. The phone location showed that he had travelled several times between Andheri and Vasai since the previous day. Around midnight, the duo left for Andheri police station to lodge a complaint. “The police suggested we wait for a few days in case Mohanty intended to return the phone,” said Manaja. When he didn’t return it, an FIR was registered on October 30 and Mohanty was summoned to the police station.

Manaja claimed Mohanty then started sending WhatsApp messages to her 60-year-old mother demanding that she withdraw the police complaint. Manaja said he also stalked her social media profiles and ‘liked’ her pictures. “Mohanty also sent text messages to Parashar threatening he would get her sexually assaulted,” she stated in the complaint.

The Andheri police said Mohanty kept turning off his phone and changing his location to evade arrest. “So, we set up a trap. We got a woman to contact him and introduce herself as an actor who wants to be cast in a film. He agreed to meet her a cafe. When he arrived at the cafe, we took him into custody,” said a police officer.

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