Police have arrested a 27-year-old man, who they claim is a former national-level judo player, for allegedly stalking a woman and uploading her photos on social networking sites to mount pressure on her to enter into a relationship with him.
The accused, Sonu Sharma, was previously involved in two cases registered at Civil Lines and Mianwali Nagar police station. In both cases, sections of the IT Act were invoked, while in one case appropriate sections of the POCSO Act were invoked after it was found that Sharma tried to stalk a minor girl, police said.
Additional DCP (north) Harendra Singh claimed that “Sonu, a gold medalist in the junior national competition, had also won medals in the federation cup at the national level…,”
However, after an injury, he stopped participating in Judo and became a yoga practitioner, police said. “Sonu met the complainant during one of his yoga sessions. He sent her a Facebook request and got her phone number, following which he started harassing her,” said a police officer.
After a case was registered against him, he fled Delhi. The local police station in North district tried to trace his whereabouts, and later handed over investigations to the Special Staff, police said.
The accused was traced by a Special Staff team, led by inspector Sunil Sharma, to Haryana’s Bhiwani. The team had to fend off an angry crowd when they tried to arrest him. “Sonu had shaved his head to evade police… A crowd gathered when we tried to arrest him and we had to reason with them,” said a police officer.
Sharma had posted the woman’s photos on three sites and had opened accounts using fake SIM cards, police said.