The love for colourful umbrellas cost dearly for a 32-year-old man who molested a 17-year-old college student on a skywalk on Ghodbunder Road in Thane.
The man tried to hold the girl from behind on the morning of August 11, when the girl bit him. Scared, he left the girl and fled the spot. However, while doing so, he forgot his colourful umbrella on the skywalk and came back to retrieve it within minutes. The girl who had not seen his face described his umbrella and an equally bright reddish pink shirt to the Chitalsar police in Thane. The police, through informers and CCTV footage, traced the alleged molester in four days.
On August 11, a 17-year-old college student was walking on the deserted skywalk near R-Mall in Manpada, Thane at 6.15am. The accused, Dinesh Gaud, touched the girl inappropriately from behind.
A police officer from Chitalsar said, “The girl, who was on her way to college, was scared and bit on his throat when the accused lost his grip and left the girl. He ran from the skywalk. However, he realised that his umbrella fell on the skywalk during the scuffle. He has a colourful umbrella and he climbed back on the skywalk and took the umbrella and ran again. The girl who was in shock saw the umbrella and also noticed his equally colourful shirt. She went home and described the incident to her mother.”
The girl’s parents immediately took her to the police station, where she narrated her ordeal. Sulbha Patil, senior police inspector, Chitalsar police station, said, “The girl did not recollect Gaud’s face. However, she remembered his bright reddish pink shirt and a multi-coloured umbrella. He had returned midway while escaping to get the umbrella that had fallen on the skywalk during the scuffle. We formed five teams and activated all our informers with the information of the umbrella and the accused’s attire. We also checked over 35 CCTV footages along the Ghodbunder Road. In one of the footages, we saw a person with the same colour shirt but his face was not visible. Through our informants, we got to know about a person who loved colourful shirts and umbrellas and resided in the shanties of Manorama Nagar in Dokali.”
{{/usCountry}}The girl’s parents immediately took her to the police station, where she narrated her ordeal. Sulbha Patil, senior police inspector, Chitalsar police station, said, “The girl did not recollect Gaud’s face. However, she remembered his bright reddish pink shirt and a multi-coloured umbrella. He had returned midway while escaping to get the umbrella that had fallen on the skywalk during the scuffle. We formed five teams and activated all our informers with the information of the umbrella and the accused’s attire. We also checked over 35 CCTV footages along the Ghodbunder Road. In one of the footages, we saw a person with the same colour shirt but his face was not visible. Through our informants, we got to know about a person who loved colourful shirts and umbrellas and resided in the shanties of Manorama Nagar in Dokali.”
{{/usCountry}}The police caught the accused and during interrogation he revealed that he had committed the offence. Gaud works in a glass cutting shop while his wife and 10-year-old daughter reside in Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh. He was produced in Thane court and remanded to police custody till August 18.
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