Assaulted, but police say it’s not serious

A 28-year-old woman was molested close to her Bandra residence by an unidentified man in an autorickshaw on March 5. The Khar police, however, registered an FIR only three days later. Puja Changoiwala reports.

A 28-year-old woman was molested close to her Bandra residence by an unidentified man in an autorickshaw on March 5. The Khar police, however, registered an FIR only three days later.

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The police had initially registered a non-congnisable offense report, the woman alleged. The victim, a communications executive, was walking towards her residence at Sherly Rajan road in Bandra (west) at around 11.30pm when an auto rickshaw approached her from the rear.

One of the two men in the rickshaw groped the victim, and when she retaliated by punching him, he punched her back in the eye and on the shoulder.

She approached the Khar police to file an FIR, but the police registered a non-cognisable offence. “A cop [assistant inspector Sachin Jadhvar] took down my complaint. However, since the copy of the complaint I received was written in Marathi, which I can’t understand, it was only later that a friend pointed out that the police had registered a non-cognisable offense report, instead of an FIR,” she said.

The victim approached the Khar police station again three days after the incident, following which an FIR was registered. P Dighavkar, deputy commissioner of police (zone IX) then said, “We have registered a case under Indian Penal Code sections 354 for outraging the modesty of a woman and 323 for voluntarily causing hurt. There was a misunderstanding between the victim and the policeman.”