Woman Safety? French Consulate Staffer Molested In Bandra; CCTV Scanning Leads to Tracking AccusedÂ
Woman Safety? French Consulate Staffer Molested In Bandra; CCTV Scanning Leads to Tracking Accused
The 27-year-old woman was attacked past midnight; officers scanned over 50 cameras to track the suspect to his Dharavi home.
A 27-year-old French woman working with the French Consulate in Mumbai was allegedly molested in Bandra West shortly after midnight on November 8. She was walking back to her accommodation after meeting a friend at Pali Hill when a scooter rider began following her. According to police, the man drew up beside her, touched her inappropriately and sped off.
The consulate filed an official complaint six days later, on November 14. Once the FIR was registered, the Khar police launched an intensive investigation. Officers reviewed footage from more than 50 CCTV cameras in the neighbourhood. Although some street recordings had already been overwritten, investigators managed to recover key clips showing the suspect trailing the woman on his scooter.
The accused was identified as 25-year-old Sunil Waghela, a scrap dealer living barely 100 metres from the Dharavi police station. One clip captured him pulling up beside the woman moments before fleeing. Police traced his scooter registration to his residence and arrested him on Saturday night, within 24 hours of the complaint reaching Khar police station.
A special team formed by DCP (Zone IX) Dikshit Gedam comprising ACP, senior inspector, inspector, assistant inspector and sub-inspectors and laid a trap near Waghela’s home. When officers moved in, several locals attempted to obstruct the arrest, but the police dispersed the crowd and took Waghela into custody.
Officers are now verifying whether he had been watching the woman earlier and why he was in Bandra at that hour. Preliminary suspicion indicates he may have followed her for a few days before the assault.
Waghela has been booked under Section 74 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which deals with assault or use of criminal force on a woman with intent to outrage her modesty. He was produced before the holiday court in Bandra on Sunday and remanded to police custody till Monday. Investigators are also examining his past to determine if he has been involved in similar offences.
