Yadav had moved base from Thane to Mahalaxmi from where he was detained Saturday night. (file)The Mumbai Government Railway Police (GRP) have traced and arrested a man for allegedly molesting a woman lawyer inside the ladies compartment of a local train between Andheri and Borivali last week, said officials Monday.
Later, the lawyer had taken to Twitter to narrate the poor treatment she faced at the hands of officials at the Andheri GRP station where she had gone to file a complaint.
Biharilal Yadav, 43, who is a resident of Kalwa and works as a labourer, was identified based on footage from CCTV cameras at several railway stations, according to officials. “He was arrested by Vashi GRP in 2021 in a mobile theft case that helped police ascertain his identity,” said Arshuddin Shaikh, a senior inspector with the GRP Crime Branch.
Yadav had moved base from Thane to Mahalaxmi from where he was detained Saturday night. He told the police he was ‘intoxicated’ at the time of the incident.
The CCTV footage showed Yadav had changed multiple trains and was moving in and out of different compartments. The police said prior to the incident, Yadav was not wearing pants and was roaming at the Vile Parle railway station.
Some commuters offered a pair of pants to him after which he got into the ladies’ compartment of a Harbour Line train. He kept changing the compartments and again threw his pants away and went to Mira Road.
The complainant had taken to Twitter to narrate her ordeal at the Andheri GRP station where she had gone to lodge a complaint. The woman said she was made to sit for three hours and narrate her experience three to four times to get a First Information Report (FIR) registered. Following her post, Quaiser Khalid, GRP Commissioner, asked the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) to conduct an inquiry.
“After a delay of 3 hours for reasons best known to the cops (I entered at 11am, identified the perpetrator at 11:30 and my statement was taken at 2), me narrating my horrible experience 3-4 times, describing and identifying the man who assaulted me, hearing how I should have hit him and tackled this better, and that I should be thankful I was in my “covered” formal attire, being told to give my statement in the middle of the police station when a separate room was clearly available, being told that since he wasn’t my bf or someone I knew I was a “nice girl” and I didn’t do anything wrong to be upset, I finally got a copy of my statement,” she had tweeted.
She said the police then told her that the platform where she was assaulted was actually under the jurisdiction of the Borivali Railway Police and the information about the case would be forwarded to them. “To my shock, I received a call from the borivali police station this evening calling me once again to identify the perpetrator on cctv footage,” she said in her tweet.
She later said an official from the Borivali GRP called her and told her she need not come to the police station again.