CSMT sexual assault: Police escort traumatised survivor to college, get her exam postponed

A 20-year-old woman was allegedly sexually assaulted on a moving train in Mumbai while on her way to an exam. The suspect has been arrested and the Government Railway Police escorted the victim to her college to ask for her exams to be postponed due to trauma. The GRP has also increased security on Harbour line trains and instructed personnel to escort women and children found alone at railway station premises to the booking office.

MUMBAI: The 20-year-old woman, who was on her way to appear for examination and was allegedly sexually assaulted in a moving train on Wednesday, was escorted by the Government Railway Police to her college to convince the authorities to postpone her exams, as she was traumatised.

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The Girgaum resident had boarded the train to Belapur from CSMT at 7.27 am on Wednesday and was allegedly sexually assaulted by a labourer identified as Nawazu Karim Shaikh, 40, between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and Masjid Bunder stations.

Shaikh was arrested by the GRP within eight hours of the incident. A native of Kisanganj in Bihar, he was produced before a court on Thursday and remanded to police custody for six days.

Police officers said that they have so far not found any previous case across the state against Shaikh and at the time of his arrest, he was not drunk.

“Shaikh is a daily wage labourer who intended to sexually assault the victim seeing her alone in the compartment and had boarded the train only after it started moving,” said Ravindra Shisve, commissioner of GRP.

According to Shisve, after the incident, they have decided to increase security on Harbour line trains even during the day. “In the past five months, there were 47 cases of molestation etc on Harbour Line trains but all were committed during the night-time,” said Shisve.

GRP officers said that they have instructed their personnel to escort women and children found alone at railway station premises to booking office and ask them to wait there instead of the at the platforms.

On Wednesday, after the woman boarded the women’s compartment of the CSMT-Belapur train, Shaikh saw her and boarded the train after her when it began moving, and sexually assaulted the woman.

As the train neared Masjid Bunder station, the woman raised an alarm after which the accused alighted the train at Masjid Bunder. The woman alighted and boarded the general compartment of the same train. A passenger saw her shiver and asked her if she needed help. When she revealed the incident, the passenger dialled the 1512 helpline of GRP and informed them about the incident.

As the train reached Vashi station, the GRP officers met the girl and took her to her college.

“We had prepared four teams and were able to identify the accused from a CCTV camera recording while he exited Masjid Bunder station. We arrested him within hours of the incident,” said a police officer from CSMT GRP.