MUMBAI: Three days after Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi submitted a complaint to the Goregaon police against an unidentified Twitter user for allegedly threatening to rape her minor daughter, the police identified the accused as Ahmedabad's Girish Maheshwari (36) and arrested him.
On his Facebook profile, the accused claims his employment status as ‘accounting associate at Bharatiya Janata Party’.
He was arrested under section 509 (word, gesture intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
On Monday, Congress party's spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi, had registered a complaint with the Goregaon police against the accused.
The accused uses the Twitter handle @GirishK1605, and had allegedly issued rape threats to Chaturvedi’s minor daughter on Twitter. Chaturvedi had mentioned in her complaint that the then unidentified Twitter user made such a threat despite using an image of Lord Ram as his profile picture.
After getting the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the accused, the police tracked Girish Maheshwari (36) location to Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Police immediately sent a team and arrested the accused on Thursday morning. Maheshwari, who is allegedly working as an accounting assistant at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had earlier posted a few derogatory memes about Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, and singing praises of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Maheshwari was brought to Mumbai and produced in the local magistrate’s court, which remanded him in police custody till July 10.
“Despite having a picture of Lord Ram as his profile picture, the accused did not hesitate from making such remarks,” tweeted Chaturvedi on Sunday night, after tagging Mumbai police’s Twitter handle and commissioner of Mumbai Police. Later, the Union ministry ordered Mumbai police to take stern action against the accused. The Delhi Police had also filed an FIR in the case after receiving a complaint from Chaturvedi.
“Goregaon police have registered an offence under section 509 (word, gesture intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC as well as relevant sections of the Information Technology Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act,” said Mumbai police spokesperson and deputy commissioner of police (operations) Deepak Deoraj.
Following the arrest, Chaturvedi took to Twitter to share her gratitude by posting: “I would like to thank @Mumbaipolice , @Delhi police , especially @IPS Madhur Verma and @CPDelhi . Also my gratitude to @HMOIndia & @rajnathsingh ji for taking this up.”
