BENGALURU: East division’s CEN police arrested a 22-year-old medical college dropout for allegedly harassing a Muslim woman and asking her to remove her burqa after she was seen on a bike with a man said to be from a different religion.
The accused waylaid the bike on which the man and woman were travelling, in Govindapura area on August 24. He questioned her for roaming around with a man from a different faith.
The accused, identified as Mohammed Zakeer, a resident of Raheem Nagar in Bangarpet, Kolar Gold Fields (KGF), was pursuing medicine at a medical college in Kyrgyzstan and had dropped out of the course. He was visiting his sister’s house in Govindapura on that day.
A video of the incident had gone viral. Zakeer started harassing the woman and publicly shaming her, and some people from the watching crowd supported him. However, none of them abused or attacked the woman’s friend. When she started walking away, Zakeer and some others followed her.
The woman and her friend are colleagues, and the latter was dropping her back to a parking lot in Govindapura, where she had parked her scooter, police said. “The accused is not known to the victim. The woman filed a complaint on Saturday and the accused was swiftly arrested. He was remanded in judicial custody,” said DCP (East) Bheemashankar S Guled.
The video was posted by a user @BefittingFacts. It was shared on Friday, a day after the incident, tagging Bengaluru City Police’s X handle.
Reacting to the video, the DCP said it was not clear who filmed the video and posted it on social media. “The case is still under investigation. Whoever filmed it or posted it on social media is also in trouble,” the DCP added.