MUMBAI: Three days after a young woman was sexually harassed and thrown off a moving local train, railway police picked up a 30-year-old man from Koparkhairane and charged him with the offence. Accused Raju Pandey works as a cook in a bar. He has told the police he was under the influence of drugs when he spotted the victim travelling alone in the ladies coach and targeted her.
On Friday morning, the 25-year-old victim was on her way to meet her fiance and boarded a Panvel-bound train from Wadala. Just as the train began to move, the accused, who was in the adjacent coach for the handicapped, hopped over to the ladies compartment. He grabbed her and demanded sexual favours. Pandey has told the police he was infuriated when the woman fought back and decided to teach her a lesson by pushing her off the local. She suffered a fracture to her arm. A few railway gangmen found her and halted another local to carry her back to Wadala station from where policemen took her to a hospital.
Railway police have acted swiftly and nabbed the man who sexually harassed a woman commuter and threw her off a local train. The case must now be fast tracked and stringent punishment given so that it acts as a deterrent. The incident also highlights the need for access control at railway stations. The culprit confessed he was under influence of drugs at the time. When locals are operating only for limited categories of passengers, the question is how did he walk into the station premises so easily.
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Police started combing CCTV footage on all harbour line stations and found grabs of Pandey entering King’s Circle station. After the crime, he got off at GTB Nagar station.
A trail of CCTV grabs showed him going to Navi Mumbai and then getting onto a transharbour local. The police focussed their search on the transharbour line and tapped their informants. Eventually, they got confirmation that Pandey was seen entering and leaving Koparkhairane station the most. “We tracked him down to a bar where he worked,” said senior inspector, GRP crime branch, Shailendra Dhiwar.
The bar owner had given Pandey a place to stay in sector 19. Police have found the victim’s phone that Pandey had pocketed from the ladies compartment.
Pandey told the police he had lived in orphanages in Matunga, Mankhurd and other places till he was 18. He then did odd jobs and lived by himself. He was heavily hooked to drugs and has been booked in cases of drug consumption by Dharavi and Shahu Nagar police stations earlier. “He has been handed over to Wadala GRP post where he faces charges of attempt to murder and molestation,” said GRP commissioner Ravindra Sengaokar. Police will check whether Pandey was involved in other cases of molestation reported on Central Railway.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)Get an chance to win ₹5000 Amazon Voucher by taking part in India's Biggest Habit Index! Take the survey here
Nitasha Natu is a Senior Assistant Editor with the Times of India...
Read MoreNitasha Natu is a Senior Assistant Editor with the Times of India and writes on gender, human rights, road safety and law enforcement. She has received the Laadli Media & Advertising Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2021. She tweets @nnatuTOI
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