53YEAROLD WOMAN ABUSED, STALKED AT RACECOURSE

A 53-year-old south Mumbai woman, who was out for an evening walk at Mahalaxmi Racecourse with her husband and dogs, was harassed, abused and stalked by a stranger because her dogs were in the way of his walking track.

According to the Tardeo police, the complainant, owns a beauty parlour, and her husband who runs an estate agency, mostly stays out of India. When he is in Mumbai, they take walks together. In her statement, the woman said, around 6pm on August 10, when she, her husband and her two dogs, were walking at the racecourse, a stranger along with his four friends approached them from behind. The man demanded they clear the track as the dogs were blocking his way. When the couple objected saying they could walk ahead, the man who seemed to be in his fifties, abused the woman’s husband and told her women like her are “second class citizens and belong in the gutter”.

“The woman told us that the accused degraded her and outraged her modesty,” said an officer. The woman said as the man continued to insult them, she clicked a photo of him. The couple then decided to return home. As they sat in their car, the accused also followed them in his Mercedes, right till their building gate.

“The accused was intercepted by the security guard and was asked to leave,” said the officer. On August 11, when the woman showed the accused’s photo to other joggers, they identified him. The woman then approached the police and a a case was registered against him and his friends for outraging her modesty, harassment, threatening and stalking under sections, 354 (a), 504, 509 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

“We are investigating the case,” said Sanjay Surve, senior inspector. The investigating officer said they are tracing the identity of the accused as the woman learnt of his name through other joggers and did not know him personally.

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