Mumbai: Taxi driver molests Australian national, arrested

The police were able to trace him as the woman had taken down the car’s number.

A taxi driver has been arrested for molesting an Australian national, who works with a city NGO. The woman, 20, filed her complaint on Thursday. She told the police the driver molested her in Colaba. The police were able to trace him as the woman had taken down the car’s number.

The woman said she did not raise an alarm at the time of the incident, but made sure to take down the registration number. (Picture for representation)

The woman said she took a regular taxi from Colaba on January 20 and sat in the front seat, next to the driver. The driver, Zia ul Ansari, 20, told her to put on the seat belt, but as she was buckling in, he reached for the belt on the pretext of helping her and allegedly touched her inappropriately.

The woman said she did not raise an alarm at the time of the incident, but made sure to take down the registration number. “She gave us that information when she came to register the complaint. We have registered a case of molestation,” said Manoj Kumar Sharma, deputy commissioner of police, zone I.

The vehicle number led the police to Ansari’s Worli residence on Friday, after which he was arrested and produced before a metropolitan court, which that remanded him in police custody for a day. He was later remanded in judicial custody.

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