Two held 3 weeks after molesting woman techie, beating friend

BENGALURU: Almost three weeks after a 24-year-old woman techie was molested and her friend assaulted in Indiranagar, the Jeevan Bima Nagar police have arrested two men. The incident took place on May 9 and the police have cited ‘election duty’ as the reason for taking so long to arrest the accused.
The arrested have been identified as Bilal Hussain (23) and Ali Ahmed (28), residents of  Nagarabhavi, and both are unemployed. 

A senior police officer said, based on a tip-off, they were nabbed at their relatives’ house and the bike used by the accused was seized too. They were hiding in fear of being nabbed by the police after the news of the molestation started being telecast on TV channels. The victim, who hails from Jharkhand, had gone for dinner along with a male friend Sunil Hosamani. While returning home, the bike-borne men passed objectionable comments at the woman and pulled her hair. Sunil got down from his bike and questioned them. Reacting to this, the duo attacked him with a brick and started gagging the woman who raised an alarm. 

After a while, a gang of seven men followed the woman and dragged Sunil inside a playground near government school to attack and started pulling the woman’s clothes. The locals who noticed the horror rescued her. The gang also snatched `4,000 cash from Sunil before fleeing the scene. The accused were under the influence of alcohol and intentionally molested the girl. They also wanted to rob them as they wanted money to buy liquor.

DCP (East) Ajay Hilori said that, based on the CCTV footage, the police gathered details of the accused and both have confessed their crime. Further investigations are on to nab the other accused who joined Hussain and Ahmed, while attacking the victims. “We are also verifying whether they have been involved in similar incidents earlier,” the officer added.