Man who groped 21-year-old lawyer on local train arrested

Mumbai: A 43-year-old man was arrested by the Government Railway Police (GRP) officers on Saturday night for molesting a 21-year-old lawyer inside the local train on Wednesday. The woman who was touched by the accused inappropriately while deboarding the train reported the incident to the GRP officials and also shared her ordeal on Twitter.

The woman in her tweet also stated that the Andheri GRP officials passed insensitive remarks when she approached them for help, which also added to her trauma. Commissioner of GRP Quaiser Khalid initiated an enquiry against the officials as well.

According to the senior police inspector, GRP crime branch Arshuddin Shaikh, the accused is a history-sheeter who was arrested in October 2021 for stealing a mobile phone.

Shaikh said that as soon as the case was registered, they scanned the CCTV and matched his image with the police record and identified him (Biharilal Yadav).

After confirming that the accused was Yadav, a team of the GRP reached his registered address in Thane. The officials however did not find him at his house.

“We then traced his location through his acquaintances and our informers and found out that he had been staying in Mahalaxmi,” added Shaikh. The officials then laid a trap and arrested Yadav.

“Yadav has confessed to the crime and revealed that he was in an inebriated state as he had cannabis and alcohol and had boarded the train to snatch a mobile phone,” said a police officer from crime branch GRP. Officials said that Yadav might have molested other women too.

The woman was travelling from Cotton Green to Jogeshwari and was standing at the door to get off when the train left Andheri station at 10.30am on Wednesday. A man boarded the running train and sat on the footboard. As the woman began alighting the train, he touched her inappropriately.

The crime branch officials handed over Yadav to the Borivali GRP for further investigation.