Mumbai: Entire family terrorised by psycho stalker for five years

A screengrab of a clip of Rajan Kashyap outside the family’s home on June 5

The members of an Andheri-based family have claimed that a deranged stalker has been targeting their daughter and disrupting their lives for five agonising years. The family has repeatedly brought the behaviour of the accused, Rajan Kashyap, to the attention of the Mumbai police. According to sources, Kashyap was arrested in 2020 and subsequently released on bail.

After getting convicted and serving more than one and half years in prison, the accused on Monday, a day after being released, approached the residence of the family and tried to enter it.

According to the family, Kashyap kept yelling the name of the 23-year-old woman member of the family with whom he was allegedly obsessed since she was 18. Disturbed, a number of building residents recorded him and tweeted the videos to the police seeking help.

The woman's father said, "Kashyap has been harassing and stalking my daughter. We lodged four FIRs and more than half a dozen non-cognisable reports between 2018 and 2020 at the Amboli police station. He was arrested and released on bail and sentenced to about one and a half years over these crimes. On June 4, he came out of jail. He started creating a nuisance the very next day by repeatedly shouting my daughter's name on the road."

He added, "Kashyap used to work as a peon in a studio near the building. He would harass and stalk the girl when she would go to and return from college. Every time the police would take action, he would come to our place and create a racket. We felt some relief after he was convicted but not that he's out, he is back to his old tricks."

He added, "I have shifted my wife and daughter to my relative's house."

The woman's uncle caught hold of Kashyap after he reemerged and took him to the Amboli police station but he was later released.

Her father stated, "I request the police to help and end this mental and physical trauma. I am writing a letter to the police commissioner."

A neighbour, Kushal Dhuri, told mid-day, "I have tweeted a video of Kashyap to the Mumbai police, the chief minister and deputy chief minister of Maharashtra."

He added that the accused was hot-tempered and capable of doing anything to harm the woman and her family. "The authorities must act in time," he said.

"When I spoke to the Joint Commissioner of the Mumbai Police, Satyanarayan Chaudhary, about the matter he assured me that strict action has been taken against the accused," he added.

Senior Inspector Bandopanth Bansode of the Amboli police station said, "We booked Kashyap under various Indian Penal Code sections on the same night. He was not arrested, as per a Supreme Court guideline because his offences are punishable by less that seven years' imprisonment. We have given him a notice, After this, if he acts up, he will definitely be arrested."

June 4
Day accused was released from jail

2020
Year Kashyap was arrested