Four youth who tailed Irani's car arrested for stalking

A day after Union Minister Textiles minister Smriti Irani registered a police complaint that her car was chased by a group of unidentified men, Delhi Police arrested the four accused youth who were inebriated at the time of incident.

The four youth were identified as students of Delhi University and have been booked under sections 354D (stalking) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of woman) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The accused, during their questioning, told police that they were drunk and shooting a video on a social networking website and were unaware that Smriti Irani was the occupant of the car.

The case came to light on Saturday, when the minister's security team made a PCR call around 5 pm informing police that the four youth, driving a Santro car, had been tailing the minister's car and were trying to overtake it near the Myanmar Embassy in Chanakyapuri area.

The security staff of the Union Minister later stopped the four youth and handed them over to the police. They were identified as Anand Sharma, Avinash, Shitanshu and Kunal.

However, during their interrogation, they denied that they were stalking the Union Minister, reiterating that they were indeed trying to shoot a video to upload on the internet.

"They have confessed that they were drunk but denied that they were stalking the car. They have said that they were returning drunk from a friend's birthday party and were shooting some funny videos," said a senior police official.

Their medical test was conducted and it was confirmed that all four were under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident.

They were then taken to Chanakyapuri police station and later arrested for stalking and outraging the modesty of women. They were produced before the court Sunday morning.