Twenty days after a 23-year-old software professional in Bengaluru was allegedly molested and physically assaulted not once but twice on the same night, two people have been arrested by the Jeevan Bhima Nagar PS, after initial inaction and apathy.
The police had swung into action only after a social media post written by the techie’s boyfriend, who was also assaulted, went viral and the police faced media scrutiny.
Additional Commissioner of Police (East) Seemant Kumar Singh, who had called for a departmental enquiry into any lapses by the police, said action would be taken once the DCP submits a report.
“We will soon take action as soon as the DCP submits a report. Regarding the assault case, we have already identified the culprits and arrested two of them. The other incident is being investigated by the HAL Police Station and we will nab those accused soon too,” he told TNM.
An FIR had been registered against the accused under sections 354A (sexual assault), 398 (assault with a deadly weapon) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
The accused, Bilal Hussain (23) and Ali Ahmed (28), both unemployed and residents of Nagarbhavi, were tracked using their vehicle registration numbers. They are currently in judicial custody.
Police are yet to establish the identity of the other members of the gang who had allegedly molested the techie. Police claim that both the accused have confessed to their crimes.
According to the survivor and her boyfriend, on May 9 when the duo was walking out of Hotel Empire in Indiranagar post midnight, four miscreants without any provocation pulled the woman’s hair and groped her. When he tried to intervene, the boyfriend was assaulted by the molesters and she was further manhandled. The men left after being shooed away by a crowd which gathered seeing the commotion.
There was more misery in store for the duo, as the police officials in the Jeevan Bhima Nagar Police Station rather than offering them help even refused to register an FIR citing “election duty”.
The worst came as the couple was heading home via the HAL Road when they were intercepted by eight knife-wielding men on bikes. This time, the men took away all their money at knife-point and again molested the woman and attacked both with bricks and cement sheets. They were saved after a passer-by alerted the police causing the gang to flee. A HAL Police Station beat constable, who caught one of the accused, had also released him without any reason.
After getting initial treatment at the CV Raman Nagar government hospital, the techie is now recuperating at her hometown in Bihar.