MUMBAI: Male commuters travelling on a CSMT-Panvel Harbour local spotted a man committing an obsence act in the adjacent ladies compartment on Friday afternoon when the sole female traveller in that coach screamed for help. But before he could be caught, the accused jumped off the train at Masjid and escaped.
The police are yet to register an FIR as the woman hasn’t come forward. Sleuths said they are going through CCTV footage at the station to identify the culprit.
The incident was reported around 2.45pm. “The train was between CSMT and Masjid when we heard a scream from the ladies first-class compartment adjacent to our secondclass compartment,” said Jitesh Utekar, an eyewitness. “Some of us went up to the partition between the two compartments and asked the woman what had happened. There was a man seated next to her and was zipping up. She was crying and told us he was doing something bad. We gathered he was sexually harassing her,” said Utekar.
Some of the commuters threatened to catch the man at the next station and thrash him. Utekar shot photographs of the accused even as he tried to hide in the coach. As soon as the train entered Masjid station, the man jumped off before it could halt, hopped across two platforms and melted into the crowd.
“The victim was terrified and wouldn’t speak. I dialled the GRP helpline and asked them to send a uniformed cop to attend the ladies coach. But nobody came. When the train reached Wadala station, I got off and approached the GRP chowky there. But they told me to head to the CSMT chowky as the incident had occurred in their jurisdiction,” said Utekar.
Utekar said he tried telling the woman to accompany him but she was in shock. He then went to the GRP chowky at CSMT and handed over the man’s photos to the cops. The RPF started looking up CCTV footage of Masjid station. “We couldn’t register an FIR as the victim hasn’t come forward. But we have made a note of the incident. We will try to trace the victim and urge her to lodge a case,” said a GRP official.
Representative image
