BHOPAL: Two days after a young model and blogger was allegedly molested by two men in full public glare in Indore, the police arrested the two accused on Tuesday evening.
The two men (aged between 20 and 25 years) who work at a ready made garments shop were arrested after the alleged molestation victim model identified them on the basis of CCTV footage retrieved by the Indore police.
But the duo who don’t have any past criminal record claimed that they had not molested the model on Sunday. They admitted that their motorbike had merely hit the model’s vehicle which might have caused injuries to her.
“The duo has been arrested within 30 hours from the reporting of the alleged incident by the victim to the city police. Several teams comprising at least six inspectors and a city SP rank officer tracked the culprits after analyzing around 60 CCTV footages. The team has been rewarded with a prize of Rs 20,000 for promptly tracking and nabbing the accused,” DIG-Indore Harinarayanchari Mishra said on Wednesday.
The model thanked the Indore police on Wednesday tweeting, “I believe in the law and order system that they did and will do their best to find the truth. I’m thankful to Indore police and DIG-Indore for getting the culprits behind the bars. To all the girls out there speak up police is for our help and they will do their job trust them.”
The Indore-based model had taken to Twitter on Monday to narrate how two men tried to pull her skirt while she was driving her scooter on Sunday and said to her “dikhao iske neeche kya hai” (show us what is underneath). The model tweeted further “I tried to stop them and lost control and met with an accident.” In another tweet, the model aged around 26 years wrote “it happened on one of the busiest roads of Indore, and nobody tried to stop them. They ran away, and I couldn't even see their number. I've never felt so helpless. I'm not the kind of girl who will just sit and watch. Those fiends ran away, and I couldn't do anything," she said in another tweet.
Further the model had tweeted “an uncle who came to me after my fall said it’s because you’re wearing a skirt. I’ve never been so offended.” The model also posted on the social networking portal the picture of injuries she sustained on the fall.
Taking cognizance of the tweet, the MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had termed the incident “shameful” and ordered the state DGP and Indore district collector to take necessary action.
Molestation or just Accident
With the Indore police so far not finding any circumstantial evidence or eye witnesses to corroborate the model’s molestation allegations, the cops are also probing whether it was a case of molestation as alleged by the model or only a road accident.
The alleged incident happened at around 7.15 pm near Mangal City Mall which was close to the Vijay Nagar police station on Sunday, but the alleged molestation victim or any of her friends didn’t report the matter to the police station or even report it to Dial 100 emergency service of MP police. She instead first posted pictures of her injury on Instagram and later tweeted entire matter on Sunday-Monday intervening night.
Even the staff at the pub where she went after the alleged incident has told journalists and cops that the woman only told that she had met with an accident and didn’t mention about any sort of eve teasing, sources in Indore police added.
Even when the DIG, after coming to know about the matter tweeted to the model his contact number on Monday morning and promised her prompt action, she didn’t respond to his tweet. It was on Monday afternoon that she finally met the DIG personally, after which an FIR was lodged in the matter.
“Entire matter happened within a few seconds, owing to which no one standing on the spot could have seen it. It could only have been spotted by those who were moving on vehicles on the road. I couldn’t note the registration number of the vehicle and identify the culprits as everything happened in a few seconds and I had already fallen and injured myself,” the model told The New Indian Express over phone on Wednesday.
“If my statements are being doubted then what about the other victims of molestation and sexual harassment like me. Will they ever speak up. I’ve stated to the police whatever happened to me, I’ll not change my statements. Any girl who faces such horror will never forget the faces of the culprits,” she added.
The DIG-Indore Harinarayanchari Mishra told TNIE that while both the accused have been arrested, the police will further probe the matter in depth by investigating all possible aspects in the case before filing the charge-sheet before the court.