He had been following her for the past few days but the girl had ignored him. After all his efforts were in vain, he tried pulling a Sanjay Dutt act from a recent film Policegiri, in which the actor puts his mobile phone in the female lead’s bag and calls on his own number to get her to speak to him.

Haresh Mhatre forcibly puts his mobile phone in the bag belonging to the Std IX school girl, trying to imitate Sanjay Dutt from Policegiri. Illustrations/Amit Bandre

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Inspired by Bollywood flick, he too tried the same trick and on October 26, he followed the girl and forcibly put his mobile phone into her bag when she was on her way back home. The girl went home and complained about the incident to her parents.

The girl tells her parents, who then lodge a complaint with the police and hand over the phone to them. Police start searching for the accused

The parents lodged a complaint with Manpada police station in Dombivli, under whose jurisdiction they stayed. They also handed over the mobile phone to the police. But police officials, despite having the accused’s phone, couldn’t trace him.

“When we couldn’t get through to Mhatre, we told the parents to register an FIR at the Tilak Nagar police station in Dombivli, since the offence had occurred in their area,” said an officer from the Manpada station.

His mother brings him to the police station, asking why officials were looking for her son. Police tell her the reason and arrest him on the spot

Tilak Nagar police officials dialled some numbers from the seized mobile phone, which belonged to several girls, all of whom refused to acknowledge that they knew Mhatre. However, word reached Mhatre’s mother that the police were on the lookout for her son and she promptly brought him to the police station.

Mhatre was then arrested on Monday and booked under section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code.

According to Tilak Nagar police officials, Mhatre is known to stand on the road and harass girls. “He waits outside schools and colleges to talk to girls,” added an officer from the same station. u00a0