Bhubaneswar, Nov. 13: The Government Railway Police today arrested the owner of a private company for allegedly trying to defame his friend’s 22-year-old daughter by sending her objectionable letters.
The police said the accused, Gouri Prasad Sahu, 53, tried to denigrate the girl after her father, a bank manager and a close friend of Sahu, had turned down his job offer to the girl in his company.
The victim’s father had lodged the FIR.
“This might be an act of revenge on part of Sahu,” said a police official.
The letters were posted from the Railway Mail Service. The police said Sahu and the girl’s father had been friends for the past 39 years and their families were close.
“Sahu has been running a private company in Bhubaneswar for past few years. He had offered a job to the girl, who works with a private airline in the city. However, the girl’s father rejected the offer, saying that her daughter was about to get married,” said inspector in charge of the Government Railway Police (Bhubaneswar) Soubhagya Kumar Swain.
Miffed by the rejection of his offer, Sahu had written a letter to the airline, where the girl worked, assassinating her character. This had led to an inquiry against the girl by the company. However, she was eventually given a clean chit.
But Sahu, who is also a professional photographer, then started sending similar letters along with her photographs to her relatives. He also gave them her mobile number. The letters even described her as a call girl, resulting in her getting unsolicited calls from a large number of people.
The police said Sahu had sent nearly 1,000 letters over the past six months. Two of the girl’s marriage proposals got cancelled because of this. “Tracing the post office, the girl’s father reached the Railway Mail Service at Bhub-aneswar railway station at a time when Sahu was about to post more such letters. The vi-ctim’s father then lodged a co-mplaint with us,” said Swain.
Both the accused and the girl’s father are from Phulbani, but their families are now settled in Bhubaneswar.