The Navghar police arrested a Thane resident for allegedly flashing a 23-year-old woman and touching her inappropriately inside an ATM kiosk in Mulund (East). On Sunday May 12, the Navghar police arrested a Thane resident for allegedly flashing a 23-year-old woman and touching her inappropriately inside an ATM kiosk in Mulund (East). The culprit has been identified as Sandeep Kumbharkar, 38, a resident of Kopri.
The incident took place in the morning 3 am, when the victim was on her way home having taken an autorickshaw. She got down near an ATM at Hari Om Nagar Road to withdraw money so she could pay the rickshaw driver. However, she was having difficulty at the machine for making withdrawal. Kumbharkar, who was inside the kiosk, noticed this and offered to pay the rickshaw driver. The victim refused, but still he touched her inappropriately and flashed her.
In that moment, she started video recording the incident using her phone. On seeing the camera, the culprit ran away from the spot. The victim spotted the police van in the area. She approached them and showed them the video. “The police officers chased the culprit for a kilometre before catching him,” Akhilesh Kumar Singh, deputy commissioner of police told the Hindustan Times.
The culprit was charged under sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) 354 (A) (making sexually coloured remarks, shall be guilty of the offence of sexual harassment) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The woman took the social media platform and tagged the Mumbai Police to share her incident and later thanked them for helping her.