The Bengaluru police has arrested a 22-year-old youngster for stalking and misbehaving with two girls including a minor, on Wednesday.

Manikantha, a mason reported to be a drug addict, accosted the two girls in separate incidents, asking them to “hug him” on Tuesday. On the same day, the two girls filed a police complaint.

While Manikantha, a resident of Muneshwara block in Vyalikaval, misbehaved with the college girl in the morning near Sadashivnagar, he accosted the school girl in a bike later in the evening, while the girl was on her way back home from school.

Though passersby thrashed him after the school girl raised alarm, Manikantha managed to escape before the police reached the spot. He had however, abandoned his bike at the spot. 

According to reports, the police nabbed him based on the witness accounts and the vehicle number as seen in a CCTV footage. 

He has been booked under Pocso Act and Section 354 A of IPC (outraging modesty of woman) and the complainants have reportedly identified Manikantha. He is said to have frequently harassed women on the street.

The news of the alleged mass molestation on the night of December 31 in the city, has paved way for many other instances of molestation being reported from across the city. As on January 7, Bengaluru City Police registered seven cases of molestation, out of which, one case turned out to be false. While the police was succesful in nabbing all the six accused for molesting a woman in Kammanahalli in the wee hours of January 1, the police found that an alleged case of molestation reported from KG Halli was "staged." 

The woman and her brother-in-law had hatched a "molestation plan" reportedly after getting "inspired" by the Kammanahalli incident, that was caught on CCTV.