Bandra Rickshaw Assault Case: 16-Year-Old College Student Molested At Knifepoint In Moving Auto; Accused Arrested
Mumbai: The Bandra police on Tuesday arrested an individual for allegedly molesting a minor girl in a moving autorickshaw. An incident occurred in Bandra West where a 16-year-old college student was assaulted by a man who entered her rickshaw while it was stopped at a traffic signal.
Threatening the driver with a knife, the assailant forced him to continue driving and molested the girl in the back seat. The incident occurred on Monday afternoon. Sanjay Marathe, Senior Police Inspector at Bandra Police Station, stated: "We arrested the accused, and the investigation is ongoing. He appears to be a miscreant, and we are investigating whether he has committed similar crimes in the past.
About The Case
According to the Bandra police, the victim is 16 years old and lives in Bandra West. Every afternoon, she takes a rickshaw from her house to her college. She studies at a renowned college in Bandra. On Monday afternoon, she took a rickshaw as usual from near Boston Hotel on SV Road. Around 12 noon, the rickshaw stopped at the signal near Saiba Hotel. It was noon, and the road was crowded. At that time, a man wearing a black shirt suddenly entered the rickshaw. The rickshaw driver and the girl asked him to get down, but he refused.
He stated that he wanted to go a little further, claimed no other rickshaw was available, and forced his way inside. While the girl and the rickshaw driver were telling him to get down, as soon as the signal changed, he pulled out an object resembling a sharp weapon. He threatened to kill the driver if he did not start the rickshaw. This threat frightened both the rickshaw driver and the girl. As soon as the rickshaw started moving, he molested her. When the rickshaw stopped at the next signal, he got down and ran away. The girl was terrified by this incident. She returned home without going to college and told her family about the incident after arriving.
On Monday evening, her uncle filed a complaint about the incident at Bandra Police Station. The police registered a case against an unknown person under Sections 74 (deals with the offense of outraging the modesty of a woman), 78 (penalizes stalking), and 79 (criminalizes any word, gesture, or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Section 12 (sexual harassment of a child) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The Bandra police immediately formed several teams to search for the accused. CCTV footage along the route is being examined. A sketch of the suspect has been prepared based on the description provided by the victim. The police stated that the search was carried out based on local intelligence and technical analysis, leading to his arrest.
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