Engineer arrested for molesting co-passenger in share cab in Mumbai

The complainant said the incident took place on Friday, when she visited a mall in Goregaon

Megha Sood

The complainant said the incident took place on Friday, when she visited a mall in Goregaon (FILE)

A 27-year-old civil engineer, who works with a multinational company in Powai, was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly molesting a 32-year-old woman in a share cab.

The complainant said the incident took place on Friday, when she visited a mall in Goregaon. “As I was leaving the mall around 11pm, I booked a share cab. I didn’t want to travel with the driver alone,” said the woman. “When the car reached outside the mall, a man was sitting on the back seat. When we reached the entrance of Aarey in Goregaon, the driver got another pick-up call. He took a left for Aarey Milk Colony Road. I told the driver I did not feel safe entering the desolated stretch.”

In her statement, the woman said, “The driver didn’t listen to me. The car then halted in front of a bar. I asked the passenger sitting on the front seat to let the drunk man [the accused] sit in the front. Before the cab exited Aarey, the accused pulled the lever below the seat. As the backrest went behind, the man

touched me inappropriately. I then told the driver to drop off the man and take me to the MIDC police station.”

The police registered a case against the accused and transferred it to the Aarey sub-police station. “We traced the accused with the help of the number he used to call the cab driver to book his ride,” said Sunil Jadhav, senior inspector of crime branch unit 12.

The accused, Omprakash Behra, was arrested from his house at Kurar.