Female scribe groped in Colaba, molester is held

A Delhi-based female journalist, who was in the city last week with her two colleagues on an office assignment, was groped by a bikeborne youth in upscale Colaba in the wee hours of May 16. The police have arrested the molester, identified as Love Anand Kule (19), who lives in Sundar Nagar area of Colaba.

The visiting group of scribes had booked a hotel in Colaba where they reached late night on Monday in taxi. The female scribe was on a phone call when the youth reached nearby and groped her, said a senior police officer.

“I was in Mumbai with my two colleagues and we were staying in a hotel. After completing part of our work, we returned to Colaba late on Monday night. Both of my colleagues entered the hotel premises while I was busy talking to someone over phone. Suddenly a bike-borne youth came close to me and groped me.

For a fraction of a second, I did not realise what was happening but immediately I shouted for help. The security guards, standing nearby, ran to help but the bike-borne youth managed to give them a slip. The same night I reached registered an FIR at Colaba police station,” the victim said, narrating her ordeal to the Free Press Journal.

A police officer said the crime scene was not under the surveillance of CCTV camera. The investigators nonetheless vetted footage of over two dozen CCTV cameras installed in other shops and in the by-lanes that led to the crime scene.

“In CCTV footage, we saw one biker doing the rounds. He was seen following the victim who was busy on her phone; however, the registration number of his motorcycle was illegible. We sent the grab of CCTV footage to different WhatsApp groups of beat chowkies and got the lead as his (molester’s) body language was confirmed by one local resident of Colaba,” the senior officer said.

A team of police reached his house in plain clothes and arrested Kule, who has been booked under section of 354 (molestation) of the IPC. The police have also seized his motorcycle.

The senior officer added that he could also be booked for stalking, that is 354 (D), in the charge-sheet of the case.