How Khar man came to the rescue of South Korean vlogger in time
MUMBAI: A 25-year-old Khar resident played a significant role in helping the south Korean social media influencer who was harassed in Khar by two men while she was live-streaming. Having watched the incident, he rushed to her aid and prevented the matter from getting worse.
Speaking to HT on Friday, Atharva Tikkha, a chartered accountancy student, said he had met the victim at the Raasta hotel in Khar just 20 minutes before the incident.
“She was streaming live from the hotel and we got talking. After she left, I tuned in to her page to watch her live stream. That was when I saw the two men approach her and start harassing her,” Tikkha told HT.
He immediately rushed out of the hotel and arrived at the spot, where he observed her being harassed from a distance. By that time the Korean tourist had started walking away and Tikkha saw the two men follow her on their scooter. They rode alongside and offered to drop her, but she declined. At the same time, Tikkha approached the duo and told them to leave her alone. His intervention, too, was caught on the live stream.
“They asked me if I knew her and I said that she was my friend. I further told them that it would be best if they just left immediately and fortunately, they left,” he said.
The plucky young man acknowledged that he was taking a risk by approaching them alone, but said that in that moment, it simply seemed like the right thing to do.
“Hundreds, maybe thousands of people were watching the incident live and I was not going to let two ill-mannered men tarnish my country’s image in front of the world,” he said.
Another city resident, Aditya Dube, who was also watching the live stream, posted a video of the harassment on Twitter, leading to the police taking cognizance of the matter and arresting the duo, later identified as Mobin Sheikh (19) and Naqeeb Ansari (21). The Korean woman took both, Tikkha and Dube, out for lunch on Friday and posted a video of their meeting.
On Friday, the accused were once again produced in court and remanded to further police custody for four days.
“We will be recording statements of the eye witnesses and also collecting CCTV camera footage covering the area as corroborative evidence,” said Anil Paraskar, deputy commissioner of police, Zone IX.