Mumbai, Nov 17: A  27 year old female was sexually harassed online while she was hunting for a rental accommodation in the city. She works as an executive with a tech company in Mumbai.

According to a report in the Times of India, The girl had returned to her hometown in Gujarat during the lockdown and wanted to move back to Mumbai now that companies are resuming offline operations. The harasser got in touch with her on Facebook under the pretext of leasing out his flat. They exchanged phone numbers as the profile of the accused shows him as a stockbroker. Later during the conversation he started demanding sexual favours, threatening her if she did not comply.

The girl said to TOI "I was looking for an accommodation in the Malad-Goregaon belt. I did not have an FB account until recently and decided to create one to find a flat.” She joined real estate-related groups on FB and posted her requirements. A few people responded. On Sunday, she received a message from one Akshay Singh. He enquired if she was still looking for a flat, the location and her budget. When she replied, he sent her a video of an apartment and claimed he was the owner. The girl will now approach cyber police in Gujarat. Gujarat Shocker: Deputy Collector Stalks, Blackmails Woman Govt Officer; arrested

“There was no room for suspicion. We had barely exchanged messages for 10 minutes when the conversation took a sudden turn," said the girl.

The accused told her that she needn't pay any rent and he would be willing to foot her expenses as well. He began to demand sexual favours and added that if she blocked him, he would create a fake profile with her phone number and post that she was a "call girl".

The woman stopped responding, but Singh continued to message her. She eventually blocked his profile and tweeted to Mumbai police with a screenshot of the conversation. They advised her to lodge a complaint with the cyber police in Gujarat. "Singh has since deleted and reactivated his profile a couple of times and changed his profile image," she said.

"The entire episode has left me very disturbed," the victim told TOI, adding she hoped the police catch the harasser soon.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 17, 2021 04:57 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).