Harmless chats to sexual exploitation: How a pervert terrorised women lawyers, cops

Police said 37-year-old Manjunatha alias Ram Krishna sourced contact numbers of the victims and sought sexual favours

Kamakshipalya police have arrested a man who sexually exploited several women, including women advocates and police officers.

Police said 37-year-old Manjunatha alias Ram Krishna, who hails from Mydanahalli in Madhugiri taluk of Tumakuru, sourced contact numbers of the victims and sought sexual favours.

A team headed by police sub-inspector Sharif Kallimani swooped in on the accused based on the complaint by the wife of a software professional.

Modus operandi

A habitual pickpocket, Manjunatha stole mobile phones, especially in the busy Majestic area, railway stations and other places. He would remove the sim cards from the stolen mobiles and use them from a different device to harvest the contacts of women.

He would begin contacting the women, addressing them as ‘sister’ in the beginning and would send harmless text messages. A couple of days later, he would send obscene messages, including pictures and videos. Manjunatha would then threaten to share the chat messages with their husbands and post it online, and seek sexual favours.

Manjunatha, who introduced himself using different names like Prashanth and Praveen, was arrested earlier in a pickpocketing case. When in jail, he was in touch with a legal aid and collected contact numbers of women advocates in the guise of giving those cases. He then used them for his sexual needs.

Several women had ended up meeting him and paid Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 to keep him quiet. Last arrested in 2020, Manjunatha sent obscene messages to a law practitioner in Tumakuru and a woman police officer in Vidyaranyapura. He also called police stations to ask for contact numbers of women police officers on the pretext of filing a case.

‘Catch me if you can’

On learning that there is a case against him, Manjunatha had called the Tumakuru police and challenged them to catch him if they could.

Without a permanent residence, he would call and text women from different places. He was aware that police would track him through mobile towers and stopped using the phone from a specific location, besides turning it off during the night. Police took 20 days to nab him.

Manjunath faces 14 cases in Upparpet, Halasuru Gate, Jalahalli, City railway station, Tumakuru, and Vidyaranyapura stations.

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