BENGALURU: The police have nabbed a miscreant who targeted women cops and harassed them by making obscene phone calls, saying he had raped and murdered women and daring them to apprehend him. The police identified the pervert caller as Ramesh Naika (30), a resident of Manjunath Nagar and native of Madakasira in Ananthapur district.
The police said he often made calls to policewomen on the station’s landline number, and talked about his sex crimes, besides even calling the police control room to provide false information to the personnel there. He was known to make calls from different numbers. However, he ran out of luck when the cops took his challenge seriously and caught him within a few hours to put him behind bars.
The police swung into action after Rekha, a woman police constable working in Bagalagunte police station, received the call. She was on duty around 8.30 am on February 20 when she attended a phone call on the station landline. Without revealing his name, the accused started asking details about her, and when she asked him the reason for his call, he reportedly told her, ‘Who are you? If you are free, will you come to me, I am near Eight Mile on Tumakuru Road, you come there’, and went on to utter some obscene remarks.
Rekha disconnected the call and took down the number from the caller ID. But he called again, this time from another number, and told her, ‘Hey listen, I have raped a woman in Manjunatha Nagar, if you are capable enough to find out where I am, come catch me’.
Rekha immediately informed her seniors. Naika continued to make calls, and during one such call, he told Rekha that he had also killed a woman and again challenged her and her team to catch him. The police found that the same person was making phone calls for a couple of months to women police personnel.
With technical assistance, they traced his location to Manjunath Nagar. AThe police said Naika works as a labourer in the city. He was depressed over some family dispute and made calls after consuming alcohol. He had noted down the station number which was displayed at public places, an investigating officer said. The police are now verifying whether his criminal claims are true.