Man held for harassing 1,500 women with lewd messages

Based on their ‘appearance,’ Khalid classified his victims, who included minors, as A, AA, A+, A++

Mohd. Khalid

Suffering from “inferiority complex” because of his short height, a man allegedly harassed more than 1,500 women in Delhi and nearby areas with incessant lewd messages, videos and phone calls.

Over the last three months of his activities that the police have a record of, he had compelled several of his victims to approach the police or complain on women helpline numbers.

It was only when the North-West Delhi district police received one such complaint last week, did 31-year-old Mohd. Khalid land in police’s net.

Contact numbers

His mobile phone threw up the contact numbers of around 2,100 women and girls. The WhatsApp and SMS messages sent by him since April this year revealed he had harassed at least 1,500 women in Delhi and nearby areas, said Vijay Singh, DCP (North-West).

Khalid’s modus operandi was simple. He had obtained several SIM cards on fake identity proof. “He had procured one of those SIM cards by preparing a fake voter identity card in the name and address of a man who had died in 1995,” said the DCP.

Police have so far seized three SIM cards from him. The numbers are 8376016283, 7827639789 and 7289913347. The police will be sending legal notices to the telecommunication services for issuing the SIM cards, allegedly without proper identification.

Khalid would pick his targets through the hit-and-trial method. He would call on random mobile phone numbers until he would hear a woman’s voice at the other end. He would then save that number and check the woman’s profile picture on WhatsApp.

Code words

Based on their “appearances,” he would then edit their names to code words such as A, AA, A+, A++, etc. He would begin the harassment by sending soft messages before resorting to extremely vulgar texts, videos and calls. If the victims blocked him, he would use his other SIM cards.

His victims, who included minor girls, women working for MNCs and housewives, would beg and plead with him to spare them, but to no avail. “If anyone threatened to approach the police, he would explain to them the futility of their efforts as the SIM cards were procured on fake identities,” said a senior investigator.