Woman molested near home in Bengaluru, cops file FIR

HT, 4 January 2017, BENGALURU: Days after alleged mass molestation of women on New Year’s Eve outraged the country, a video has emerged of a woman being sexually assaulted by two men in a residential area of the city around the same time.

Police have filed an FIR in the latest incident but are yet to do the same in the mob attack, saying there was no evidence and the claims were exaggerated.

“Media organisations are blurring the videos and exaggerating the events. So far, we have found no such evidence,” police commissioner Praveen Sood said.

But, police acted on their own to register a case of molestation against two unidentified scooter-borne men based on the CCTV footage of the attack on the woman in the Kammanahalli area of the city on January 1.

“The FIR was filed on Tuesday night on the basis of a video footage of the incident,” Sood, who took charge on New Year’s day, told media. “The victim’s neighbour gave us the video in response to our appeal to provide visual evidence of such incidents.”

The CCTV footage shows the woman being attacked as she walks down a secluded lane at 2.40 am. The men drive past her and then park the scooter a small distance away. The pillion rider walks back, grabs the woman, gropes her and drags her to the two-wheeler as she tries to wriggle out. The woman fell on the road after escaping her attackers. There were people watching the horror play out but no one came to her rescue.

Police have questioned some men but are yet to make an arrest. The country’s IT hub, Bengaluru, is considered a safe city for women but the two assaults, within hours of each other, have shaken up people and raised questions about policing in the city.

Police have come under fire for failing to protect women who had gathered in the city’s busy MG Road and Brigade Road areas to usher in the New Year.

A probe was on but no case has been filed, deputy commissioner of police (central) Chandragupta said.“We have so far received footage from 60 CCTV cameras in the area. We have deputed 12 police personnel to go through the footage, and so far we have gone through footage from 45 cameras,” he said.