Mumbai auto driver molests teen, pushes her out of moving vehicle as she shouts for help

The girl, a student of a college in Malad, was waiting for a rickshaw at SV Road, to return home after college hours.

A 54-year-old auto rickshaw driver from Kandivali was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly molesting a 17-year-old girl in his auto and pushing her off the running vehicle when she shouted for help.

According to the police, the incident took place around 4:00 pm on Monday

According to the police, the incident took place around 4:00 pm on Monday, when the girl, a student of a college in Malad, was waiting for a rickshaw at SV Road, to return home after college hours. “She got into the accused’s auto and told him that she wanted to go to Orlem in Malad West. He asked her to sit in the middle of the rickshaw, saying road work was going on and the auto would tilt to a side if she sat on one side. He then took the rickshaw in the wrong direction and stared at the girl through the mirror of the rickshaw. He winked at her two or three times and made obscene gestures,” said police inspector Tushar Salunkhe.

The girl got scared and asked him to stop the auto immediately, when the driver sped up the vehicle. She then started shouting for help, after which the accused pushed her out of the moving rickshaw, he added.

The girl told the police that she then called her sister, who took her to a nearby hospital, as she was injured after being pushed. The girl’s mother then approached the Malad Police and reported the incident, after which a case was registered against the auto driver under Sections 79 (molestation), 109 (attempt to murder) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita along with Section 12 (sexual harassment) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The police said that they have identified the auto rickshaw with the help of CCTV cameras and that he had last been spotted in Kandivali. He has been identified as Keshav Prasad Yadav, 54, a resident of Laljipada in Kandivali West. Yadav was caught from Mathuradas Road after a few hours of search, where he was sleeping in the rickshaw. He will be produced before a court on Wednesday, the officer said.