3 arrested for writing defamatory letters, pasting posters against woman asst prof

The city police arrested three men, including two lecturers of an aided college in Bantwal, for allegedly writing defamatory letters and pasting posters on public walls against a woman assistant professor from Mangaluru, with an intention to destroy her reputation and outrage her modesty.

“The arrested men include Prakash Shenoy (44), a college correspondent from Belthangady taluk, Economics lecturer Pradeep Poojary (36) from Megina Ulirodi in Siddakatte and physical education director Taranath B S Shetty (32) from Seethanadi in Hebri,” Mangaluru Commissioner of Police N Shashi Kumar told reporters in the police conference hall on Wednesday.

Elaborating on the case, the commissioner said the victim is presently serving at a first-grade college in Mangaluru, on deputation, for the past four and a half years.

He said the men using obscene language and photographs, downloaded from the internet, had sent hundreds of open postcards and inland letters with an intention to tarnish her image with lecturers, principals and officials in the department of collegiate education from November 12, 2021, to December 31, 2021.

Later, the trio declaring that the assistant professor a commercial sex worker had pasted her contact numbers, including her email address, on the walls in public urinals in Chikkamagaluru, Sullia, Subrahmanya, Mudugal, Kottigehara, Hassan, Kallugundi, Belur and NR Pura, he added.

“The victim was receiving calls soliciting sexual favours from unknown numbers throughout the day,” said the commissioner.

The accused men even had issued threats to the assistant professor and her family members. The men even sent messages typed in open letters and posters to family members also.

The letters had even accused the assistant professor of having illicit relationships with senior officials. The letters had claimed that she was appointed as a member of the Board of Studies in Kannada after appeasing powers-that-be.

The victim said, “I had received over 800 calls between February 8 to 18, 2022. The callers had even threatened to sexually assault my daughter and other family members.”

Following a complaint from the victim, the police launched an investigation and arrested the trio based on technical and documentary evidence.

The victim was serving as an assistant professor at the aided college in Bantwal since 1991. Her post was regularised in 1998 and she was due for promotion in 2008. The men, nursing a grudge, had ensured that the college had withheld her promotion.

After facing harassment at the hands of college authorities, she sought deputation to a college in Mangaluru about five years ago.

“With the help of the commissioner of collegiate education and higher education minister, my promotion was confirmed. The men in my parent institution continued to target me, fueled by fears that I will return to the college,” she suspects.

The police commissioner said that Pradeep Poojary also has a case registered against him for outraging the modesty of another woman lecturer in a college in 2019.

The police seized three mobile phones from the three men and launched a search for other suspects.

CDR nails lecherous men

Scrutiny of call details records (CDR) of the three men had revealed that they were present at the places where the victim’s contact number and email address were pasted on the walls of public toilets, said Mangaluru Commissioner of Police N Shashi Kumar.

Police have registered the case under sections 507, 509, 149 and 354 of the IPC.