Lucknow,June 27:CALL it the revenge of the weaker sex if you will. ‘ Adam- teasing’ has emerged in a big way in Lucknow.
Adesh was teased by a group of girls while he was on his way home after his coaching classes in the evening. The boy approached the police after enduring 15 days of “ mental torture”. The Lucknow police also had to interfere on behalf of Jayant in a similar case.
Another BSc student who constantly received explicit text messages from a girl also sought police help.
And the surveillance cell of the Lucknow police’s crime branch has to deal with all such incidents.
“ I cannot remember the number but we have received numerous complaints about girls harassing boys. In some cases, the matter was solved over the phone but in others, we had to call the girl to the cell,” G. P. Chaturvedi, the crime branch’s SP, said.
The majority of the girls had a ready explanation for the prank calls and messages.
“ Most of the girls we called to the cell said they had been sending the communication to someone else but it reached the complainant by mistake,” Chaturvedi said.
While their colleagues in the other parts of Uttar Pradesh are under fire for various excesses and omissions, the Lucknow police also have to deal with the battle of the sexes.
Adding to the surveillance cell’s confusion — and amusement — are cases of eveteasing.Of the 145 complaints of eveteasing received in the past five months, over 90 per cent have been found to be fake.
Only three complaints turned out to be genuine.“ In 131 cases, we found that the boy and girl had an affair.
The girl, fed up with the relationship, lodged a complaint with us to get rid of the boy,” Chaturvedi said.Take the case of Dinesh and Pooja. “ The couple had been in a relationship for the past four years. But the girl recently started avoiding the boy. Irritated by his calls, Pooja accused Dinesh of harassing her with endless calls and texts,” a subinspector with the surveillance cell said.
The police came to know the true story only after they picked up Dinesh.
“ On his request, we checked their call details and found that the couple used to talk for hours on end,” the officer added.
In yet another case, a boy was called to the cell after a girl accused him of raping her.
Surprisingly, he threw out the memory card of his mobile phone before entering the cell’s office — in a vain attempt to protect the girl, because a constable noticed his action and picked up the card.
“ When we scanned it, we found some objectionable videos of the duo. The girl’s father, who had accompanied her, was shocked to see the clippings. He withdrew the case and started beating the girl in front of us,” a police officer said.
The cell also has a counselling team. “ We call both the parties and our counsellors provide them advice. We usually let them go them with a warning,” Chaturvedi said.