Woman molested in DTC bus, but co-passengers come to her rescue

NEW DELHI: In a rare instance, passengers travelling on a Delhi Transport Corporation bus actually came to the rescue of a woman who was allegedly molested by a co-passenger on Friday. After they caught him and handed him over to the cops, the accused was booked for molestation and assault.

In her complaint, the 26-year-old victim told the cops that she had boarded the bus on route 624 at Laxmi Nagar, intending to go to Ghazipur after taking tuition classes at an institute in Shakarpur. The woman told police that she was pursuing her MPhil degree course from a private university and was headed home to Ghazipur when the incident happened.

The complainant said that she was seated in the row reserved for women. The 23-year-old man, according to her, made this way through the crowd and came towards her. He then touched her inappropriately. The woman said that she brushed it off as accidental, but realised that he continued touching her. After some time, the exasperated woman shifted to another seat at the rear of the bus, only to have the man also moving to the spot and resuming his misbehaviour.

She confronted him and an argument ensued, during which the youth slapped her and then twisted her arm when she grabbed his collar. To her relief, however, the other passengers rushed to help her and caught and dragged the accused out of the bus. They then informed police about the incident and handed him over to them.

The help that the woman got from her co-passengers is rare. A few months ago, for instance, another DU student was allegedly molested by an inebriated man near Mehrauli. She took him on and dragged her molester out of the bus and thrashed him, but had received no help from the passengers until the cops arrived. Similarly, in another case, in the absence of assistance from the passengers, a woman had jumped out of a moving bus to escape from her molester near Kapashera.