Stalker held in Odisha capital for threatening girl

Reported by Santosh Jagdev
Bhubaneswar, April 6:

A 33-year-old man was today arrested by the Commissionerate police for allegedly threatening a girl in the Oodisha capital after she rejected his amorous overtures.

Police sources said Santosh Kumar Pradhan, the jilted lover, had earlier been convicted and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for attacking the girl, who is a student of a government law college. But undeterred, he threatened her again after being released from jail in February this year.

The incident took place when the girl was coming out of her college after attending classes when Pradhan waylaid her and stopped her near Satsang Vihar.

“Pradhan proposed to her and when she resisted, he threatened her of dire consequences if she did not accept his proposal. Later Pradhan had an altercation with the girl during which he slapped her,,” said a police official of Saheed Nagar police station.

“ We have arrested Pradhan under sections 354-D (showing indecent gesture towards women), 354 (outraging the modesty), 294 (obscene acts and songs), 506 (criminal intimidation), 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 341 (wrongful restraint) of Indian Penal Code,” said inspector in charge of Saheed Nagar police station, Deepak Kumar Mishra.

Pradhan, who was working as a salesman in a shoe shop in the city, was earlier arrested in March, 2011 after he attacked the girl then studying in Class-X with a dagger near Rasulgarh Square while she was returning home from a private coaching class. The 16-year-old girl had sustained severe injuries on her neck, cheek and hands.