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Security supervisor arrested for molesting college students
Gurugram A 31-year-old security supervisor was arrested in Sector 14 on Friday in connection with multiple cases of sexual harassment of college-going women.
Gurugram A 31-year-old security supervisor was arrested in Sector 14 on Friday in connection with multiple cases of sexual harassment of college-going women.
The police said he used to do rounds of roads adjoining colleges in a Mahendra Scorpio and touch them inappropriately. If the women tried to raise the alarm, he threatened their lives, the police said.
The police said the suspect works as a security supervisor with a private company in Iffco Chowk and is a married man with a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter.
He was arrested while trying to flee after allegedly sexually harassing a college student. The man was drunk and his car was confiscated, the police said.
According to police reports, two complaints of molestation have been lodged against the suspect. More victims have approached the police but refused to register a complaint, an officer said.
On Friday, he was booked for allegedly molesting a charted accountancy student who was on her way to the Sector 14 market. He is alleged to have touched her inappropriately and pushed her, causing her injuries.
Jasvir Singh, station house officer, Sector 14 police station, said that they have been tracking the suspect since receiving a complaint a few weeks ago. “He used to travel on the same route to sexually harass college students. He also used to hurt them. A few victims and family members have approached us, but refused to lodge a formal complaint due to social stigma,” he said.
In the first instance of molestation, he is alleged to have harassed two students. The complainant, the mother of one of the students, said, “My daughter is a first-year student. When she and her classmate were leaving college in Sector 14, a man a white Scorpio started following them and molested my daughter.”
She added that the suspect also passed inappropriate comments and inflicted injury on her daughter.
The police said that the locals had come to the students’ rescue, but the suspect fled the spot. The police were informed about the incident and have been tracking him since.
Pratisha Naithani, a counselling psychologist of the Gurugram police, said, “There are intense issues of power, entitlement and control that have gone unchecked in boys throughout their childhood that lead to situations wherein they think it is fine to engage in these kinds of acts to harass women.”
“During questioning, he said that last month, one of the victims had a tiff with him over parking near the Governments Girls College and had torn his shirt, following which he wanted revenge,” Singh said.
Two cases were registered against the suspect under sections 354A and 354D of the Indian Penal Code at the Sector 14 police station.
The police have also recovered CCTV camera footage of the suspect in his car from several locations.
Such behaviour is closely linked with the abuse of power and most suspects engaging in such behaviour often think that they can get away with such actions, due to strong support from their family, Naithani said. “Men molest women because they perceive women to be the weaker gender. Such an act (molestation) gives them a sense of superiority. Men who molest women lack confidence and have a distorted self-image. Most of them also see themselves as failures or have faced rejection, which could have given them an inferiority complex. To show dominance over someone who responds to such actions with fear and shame makes them feel superior and masculine,” she said.
