27YO lecturer from Koti Women's College arrested for sexual harassment in Wanaparthy

Hyderabad: A 27-year-old Sanskrit lecturer Vuppula Aditya Bharadwaj of Koti Women's College was arrested on charges of sexual harassment on Monday. On Monday at around 3 pm, the CCS Taskforce, and SHE Team arrested the accused in Wanaparthy. The accused was later shifted to Karimnagar and a case was registered in Gangadhar police station.

According to the Gangadhara police, Bharadwaj committed the crime when he was a student at Osmania University.

Background of the case

On 10 May 2022, a girl had filed a complaint of sexual harassment against Bharadwaj. According to the complainant, Bharadwaj and she studied PG together in Osmania university from 2019-21.

Taking advantage of her friendly nature, Bharadwaj sent a message to the girl on Whatsapp that he loves her and asked her to marry him. The girl refused and to this, Bharadwaj started blackmailing that he would share the girl's photos with her family members. He also sent obscene messages and threatened to kill her.

Once Bharadwaj even tried to attack the girl when her brother came there. Bharadwaj threatened to kill her brother too. He also threatened that he would attack her with acid if she refused to marry him.

Bharadwaj has been allegedly harassing and threatening the girl since then. On 10 May, the girl decided to lodge a complaint against him.

The SHO of Gangadhara PS said that an FIR has been registered and the case has been filed under Sections 354d (stalking) , 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code 9 (IPC) and Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of IT Act. The court has remanded Bharadwaj for 15 days judicial custody.

The police also confiscated his mobile phone which was used for sharing obscene photos.