Gifting lingerie leads to a lawyer's arrest

Mumbai: A 54-yr-old male was arrested from a female colleague's house for allegedly gifting her flowers, love letters and 'more'.

Two city-based advocates are pitted against each other, but not for reasons you would normally imagine.

One is a spurned lover and the other, the victim of his relentless pursuit for the past year, which involved giving her gift-wrapped underwear and kitschy love notes.

Cops arrested advocate Ambadas Sardar (54) from the Nirmal Nagar residence of advocate Suvarna Parle (39) on March 8, when he showed up at her place with a heap of presents that included undergarments.

Parle called the Nirmal Nagar police and complained that Sardar had been sending her unsolicited love letters and obscene presents for the past year, despite her turning down his overtures.

"Initially, I ignored his lewd messages and gifts. But when he came to my house with a bundle of gifts and wouldn't leave, I had no option but to call the cops," said Parle, who is also the general secretary of the Bandra Court Bar Association.

Sardar has been released on bail and a court hearing will be scheduled soon, said cops.

Mistaken love?

Sardar's torrid chase began after Parle helped him recover some dues from his colleagues. That is when a smitten Sardar decided to hound Parle, labouring under the delusion that she had helped him because she loved him, as he told cops later.

He started sending her love letters, titled after popular Hindi love songs, such as Dil ne phir yaad kiya, Tum ko na bhool payenge, Amar prem and more in the same vein. The letters, written in Marathi, were signed by him.

When the lines did not work on the object of his affection, the smitten lawyer began sending her flowers. Seeing that even this failed to move her, he resorted to delivering presents of lingerie to her. "He would press me to accept them," said Parle.

Matters came to a head on March 8, Women's Day, incidentally when Sardar showed up with a heap of gifts at Parle's doorstep. An annoyed Parle asked him to leave but he refused to budge. That is when she called the cops.

Arrest

"Sardar was arrested from the woman advocate's residence and has been booked under Sections 509 (obscenity) and 109 (abetment) of the IPC," said PSI Shyam Naik, who is investigating the case.

In his defence, Sardar told cops that he was instigated to woo Parle by his colleagues, who suggested that she had intervened to help him only because she had feelings for him.

Police are summoning eyewitnesses for questioning.