NEW DELHI: What was supposed to be a routine bus ride became a nightmare for a freelance journalist, after an inebriated man allegedly masturbated in front of her on Tuesday night.The shameful incident revived the horror which a Delhi University student had to bear earlier this year. The student’s trauma came to light after she had uploaded a video of the shameful episode, which took place inside a crowded bus on February 7.
While the culprit in the DU student’s case was a middle-aged man, the accused in the latest case turned out to be employed with an event management company. A police officer, however, said the man had ‘flashed’ inside the cluster bus on route 717, which the woman from Delhi had boarded from Kapashera to reach Vasant Kunj.
The 37-year-old accused, identified as Mukesh Ranjan Kumar, boarded the bus from Mahipalpur in an inebriated condition, according to the police. A case was registered against the accused at the Mehrauli police station after the woman made a PCR call at 9.07 pm from Chattarpur area.
In her statement to the police, the woman alleged that the man stood in front of the women row, where she was sitting and started masturbating in front of her. As co-passengers allegedly remained mute onlookers, the woman somehow gathered courage and thrashed the man before she made the SOS call. “No passenger came to my help, and I had to take action all by myself,” she said.
“The police immediately reached the spot and enquired. The complainant gave a written complaint regarding the obscene act of exhibiting private parts and used criminal force by trying to her hold from hand with an intend to outrage her modesty,” DCP South Vijay Kumar said. “A case under Section 354 (assaults or criminal forces to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and Section 504 (gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC was registered against the accused. He was sent for examination (for alcohol test).”
Recurring cases
In fact, two such cases were earlier reported in the National Capital. The first case involved a DU student. In the second incident, an Uber driver was arrested when he did the pervert act while driving a woman passenger from the IGI Airport to another part of the city. The police promptly took action after the two cases were highlighted via social media.