Pune man asks for lift feigning illness, molests girl on bike, held

The accused asked for lift pretending to be ill. While riding pillion, he touched the girl inappropriately several times. Finally, the girl stopped the bike and shouted for help but the accused managed to escape.

Pune: Police have arrested a 44-year-old man for allegedly molesting girls on the pretext of seeking lift to reach the hospital feigning illness in Pune.

The matter came to light after one of the victims posted about her harassment on social media. The victim tweeted that she and her friend were riding on a bicycle in Senapati Bapat Road in Pune when they were stopped by a man on a two-wheeler in front of Balbharti Building. The man said that he was feeling dizzy and asked the victim and her friend to take him to the hospital on his bike.

The victim took the driver's seat with the man riding pillion while her friend followed them on her bicycle. The complainant said that after sometime, the man started touching her inappropriately. Even though she asked him to stop, he continued harassing her. Scared at the man's behaviour, the girl stopped the bike and shouted out for help. In the meantime, her friend reached there on bicycle but the man managed to escape. The girl narrated the entire incident on Twitter and asked police to track the vehicle's number from the CCTV cameras installed in the area.

After getting information about the incident, Pune police initiated an investigation. Police tracked the accused from the registration number of his vehicle that was available from the CCTV footage. Finally, the accused, Anup Vani, a resident of Shaniwar Peth was arrested.

During investigation it was revealed that the accused has repeated the same incident with around 17 to 18 girls so far. Of which, five to eight girls came forward to lodge complaints against the man.

Senior Police Inspector of Chatusringi Police Station Balaji Pandey said that a case has been registered against the accused. "A helpline was set up by the Pune Police for the safety of women on July 10. On July 11, we received a call on our helpline number informing about the incident. The helpline number has already been circulated by the media from different WhatsApp groups. Women can reach out to us by dialing this number whenever they need any assistance," he said.