HYDERABAD:The online stalker who collected the phone numbers of around 5,000 girls and tormented them demanding sexual favours ran out of luck as sleuths attached to the SHE team and cyber crime police managed to arrest him here Thursday.
Madhu, alias Srinivas, an employee of the Food Corporation of India currently under suspension, had been trapping innocent girls on the pretext of educational counselling and making sexual advances for the past two years.
Additional commissioner of police (crime) Swathi Lakra, who is also the chief of SHE team, said “The way Madhu managed all the data that he gathered shows how keen he is on such matters. It seems luring the young girls was the only work he had. He used to collect the data from internet and call them over phone using different names. Once he feels a girl is trapped, he will call her to his room offering to show his office and would sexually exploit her.”
Madhu(33) alias Srinivas had used many fictitious names like Satish, Venkar Reddy etc. He had recorded the phone numbers of nearly 5,000 girls in 13 separate ledgers, distinguished based on service providers, and had 19 cell phone connections. He used to follow the career aspirations of women candidates going by their application for exams. For instance, if a woman is aspiring to an engineering seat, he would promise to get her admission in prestigious colleges. This, he assured in return of sexual favours and money. Till now, he has abused around 300 girls, sources said.
“The accused took the help of an operator, namely Shiva, at the Indian Internet Point in Kothapet to download the profiles of girls who applied for SSC advanced supplementary, OUCET-2015 and other exams. He used to contact the girls from different cell phones and scribble a remark beside their name in the ledger based on their response. Waste, danger and over are the most common remarks he used,” Swathi said.
“He rented a couple of houses in isolated areas at Bandlaguda and Sai Nagar Colony where no one would observe his acts. He also tried to blackmail the girls who objected to his advancements, claiming that he had got some photos and videos,” the chief of SHE team said.
The accused obtained the SIM cards by submitting fake address proofs. “Madhu used address proof of Bingi Maheshwari and Gujjalwar Satish. He approached salesmen who sold SIM cards on roadside by erecting temporary tents at Chaitanyapuri and Panjagutta X roads on two separate occasions and told them that he had no address proof. The salesmen gave him required address proof and photos and asked him to make a photocopy of it. He made multiple copies and used them as proofs to obtain 19 SIM card connections of various service providers,” the official said.
As one of the victims, who was abused by Madhu lodged a complaint, police registered a case at Cyber Crimes PS and are taking steps to book him under the PD (Preventive Detention) Act. He was caught by the police after they tracked him down with the help of call record details.
Police has recovered a CPU, mini laptop, one external hard disk, 19 mobile phones with SIM cards, 13 ledgers/registers and two bikes. They are trying to scan the laptop protected with security features to get some evidence.