Woman hit with belt for protesting against man filming her, four held

PUNE: A young woman travelling on Jhelum Express on way to Daund from the city was showered with the filthiest of abuses, slapped, punched and hit with a belt on Saturday evening for standing up to her co-passenger, who allegedly started filming her on his cellphone without her consent.

The Government Railway Police (GRP) on Monday night arrested four men and booked their two friends.

Senior inspector Manoj Khandale of GRP said a 22-year-old passenger, a resident of Daund, lodged a complaint against the men following which police arrested the suspects. “She is a postgraduate student in a top college in the city and commutes by train,” Khandale said.

On Saturday, the woman attended her college in Deccan and went to Pune railway station around 5.45pm with her sister to board the Jhelum Express heading towards Daund.

There were four men occupying the front seats on the train. A few minutes after the train started, one of the men took out his cellphone and started filming the complainant. The woman realised that the man was filming her and asked him to stop it. However, the men denied that were filming her and started arguing with her, the FIR said.

The men ignored her protest, abused her and continued to pass lewd comments.

Fed up at being abused, the women asked them to shut up. However, one of the suspects slapped the woman while another hit her with a belt. The woman sustained injuries on her head and shoulder.

Though the entire compartment was packed with passengers, none of them intervened. As the train slowed down at Urali Kanchan railway station, the suspects jumped off the train and ran away.

The woman then approached the policemen at Urali Kanchan and lodged a complaint. Police worked on the description of the suspects and laid a trap at Urali Kanchan railway station, following which the suspects were apprehended. “We have seized their cellphones, belts and shoes,” Khandale said.

The suspects have been identified as Jay Machindra Dhawale (22), Subham Suryakant Ujagare (22), Kiran Suryakant Ujagare (22), and Jignesh Ganesh Gaikwad (22), all residents of Urali Kanchan, off Pune–Solapur highway. A hunt has been launched for their two accomplices. The suspects are students of different colleges in Pune. They were arrested under the provisions of outraging modesty of a woman, riot and physical assault, Khandale said.