Man held for masturbating at US woman in Mumbai gets bail

25-year-old man, who was arrested by Colaba police for allegedly masturbating at an American woman, has been granted bail

The Colaba police, on Wednesday, had arrested the man for the obscene act on the street in broad daylight on Monday. (Read Story: US woman takes to Twitter to nab man who masturbated at her in South Mumbai)

The accused has been identified as Gopal Valmiki (25), a resident of Bheed Bunder, Colaba. He was picked up by cops at 1.30 am on Wednesday. Valmiki is a graduate and works in Share Bazaar. The accused will be produced in the court in the afternoon

The incident led to huge outrage and shame after the woman very cleverly took a picture of the accused and posted it on Twitter, after which it was instantly picked up and retweeted several thousand times. Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis intervened and asked cops to look into the matter.

The woman had posted this picture on Twitter

Several teams from Colaba police station as well as the Crime Branch are investigating the case.

Sources also said that woman had to face molestation in public few days earlier as well. After Monday's incident, her patience ran out, and she finally decided to make the photo public.

During the shameful act, the man allegedly even tried to come near the woman, after which she made desperate calls for help. Two alert locals intervened and caught the man. He, however, escaped while being taking to Colaba police station.

The woman later posted a tweet (with the accused's image), which read, "Please RT- this man just masturbated at me on the street in broad daylight. Ran away after a confrontation."

Initially, the woman did not approach the Colaba police but later in the evening after massive debate and outrage on social sites, police officials got in touch with her and asked her to file a formal complaint. On Tuesday afternoon, police officials reached her residence to record her statement, after which a FIR was registered in the matter.

"The accused has been booked under section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult modesty of a woman) of the IPC," a police official informed.