Noida: Man arrested for sexual assault on woman architect at housing society

The woman alleged that the police did not act on her complaint initially and she had to upload a 1.28 minute video, narrating her ordeal, on social media

Noida: 

The woman’s video was widely shared, following which a case of sexual harassment under relevant sections of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) was registered against the unidentified suspect and 10 teams were formed to nab the person. (Representative image)

A 46-year-old man was arrested late Sunday night after a 25-year-old woman architect uploaded a video on social media alleging that an unidentified man sexually harassed, assaulted, and disrobed her at a park in her housing society in Noida’s Sector 48 when she was returning home from office on July 31.

The woman said in her police complaint, “On July 31, when I was returning home from office in the rain around 7.30pm, a man wearing a white shirt approached me inside a park (in the society) and pushed me from behind. He tore my clothes and sexually harassed me. When he spotted two girls approaching the park gate, he escaped.”

The woman alleged that the police did not act on her complaint initially and she had to upload a 1.28 minute video, narrating her ordeal, on social media on August 2 to prod the police to act.

“After the incident on July 31, I went to the police station, and a few officers came along with me to the society to investigate. However, after a search, they left the spot saying they had something else to handle,” the woman, who moved in to the housing society last August, said.

She said, “The next day, I went to the police again, but they asked me to go and check the CCTV footage from the society. Most of the CCTV cameras were not working, and when I did not get any help from the police, I made a video of my ordeal on August 2.”

That video was widely shared, following which a case of sexual harassment under relevant sections of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) was registered against the unidentified suspect on August 3, and 10 police teams were formed to identify the suspect.

“Following the video, I received a call from a senior police officer, and a case was registered at Section 49 police station on August 3. They (police) tried to search for the suspect till 2am on August 4, but when they did not find him, they asked me to come again, and the next day, a sketch artist was called in,” said the woman.

“On Sunday, they showed me around 20 CCTV camera photos, and after the completion of the sketch, they showed me another CCTV photo, and I identified the suspect,” she said.

Police said they arrested the suspect, identified as Chaman (single name), a resident of Barola in Sector 49. Later, his acquaintances gathered at the police station, seeking to free him and alleging that police wrongly arrested him.

“The suspect was arrested following an extensive search, and as his arrest news spread, his acquaintances gathered at Sector 49 police station on Monday. They tried to prove his arrest wrong and said they had a video of him elsewhere at the time the woman was assaulted on July 31. When we asked for the video, they left the spot,” said Rambadan Singh, deputy commissioner of police (DCP), Noida.

The DCP said the suspect was arrested based on multiple pieces of evidence.

“We scanned footage from the multiple CCTV cameras in the vicinity and called in a sketch artist to draw the suspect based on the survivor’s description. Based on that sketch, sources, and footage, the suspect was tracked and called to police station for questioning,” said DCP Singh, adding that after getting confirmation from the survivor, he was arrested on Sunday night.

Reacting to the allegations about police inaction and late registration of the FIR, the DCP said, “We are investigating the incident.”