Blanket seller from Boisar detained in Virar highway molestation and murder case

Mumbai: A man from Boisar has been detained by crime branch officials in connection with the molestation of a 21-year-old woman in a taxi from which her 10-month-old daughter was flung off in the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway near Virar on Saturday

Mumbai: A man from Boisar has been detained by crime branch officials in connection with the molestation of a 21-year-old woman in a taxi from which her 10-month-old daughter was flung off in the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway near Virar on Saturday.

HT Image

The detained suspect is a blanket seller from Boisar, who was one of the four men, seated on the rear seat of the white taxi (Eeco van).

According to the statement of the victim, the detained suspect and three others began molesting her near Mandovi area in Virar and when she resisted, they snatched her daughter and flung her outside the cab. The woman then insisted on stopping the car, but the driver - Vijay Kushwaha did not. She then opened the door and jumped outside to save her daughter. A traffic patrolling officer, who was behind the cab, helped her and rushed them to the Sanskruti Hospital in Virar.

The mother-daughter was then shifted to Platinum Hospital, where the kid was declared dead. The police then sent the girl’s body for post-mortem to the Tulinj municipal hospital. The woman who had received injuries due to her fall told the police in her statement that she had taken the cab from Nalasopara after visiting her relatives and was travelling to her in-law’s house in Manor in Wada taluka with her daughter at 11am on Saturday.

The woman said there were four men in the rear seats and the driver in the cab. She said that she sat next to the driver with the kid in her lap. After crossing Virar, the men began touching her inappropriately. After she resisted, the men threw her kid from the car.

Based on the woman’s complaint, the Mandovi police have registered a murder case and also booked the accused persons of molesting her. The police have already arrested Kushwaha.

On Sunday, the case was transferred to the crime branch by Vasai-Virar commissioner Sadanand Date.

Police officers said that they began tracing the four men who were sitting in the rear seat. “We scanned the CCTV footage of the highway and traced a suspect in Boisar. We have detained him and are questioning him,” said a crime branch officer.

Kushwaha, who is in police custody has, however, maintained that the incident was an accident and that the baby slipped and fell from her mother’s lap.

“As soon as the baby fell, I hit the brakes but before the car could stop, the woman jumped to save her kid. Along with the constable who was behind my car, I put the baby and the mother in my car after leaving the other passengers behind and rushed them to the hospital,” Kushwaha told the police.

The police officers said the woman had taken the taxi from Pelhar in Nalasopara and the incident took place nearly two kilometres away at Mandovi at 11.20am. “We have arrested Kushwaha and will arrest the remaining four accused mentioned by the victim,” said the officer.