Crime branch tracks down, arrests molester who touched jogger

Aman Abdul Rehman Sheikh

The crime branch has arrested a 27-year-old salesman on Friday for molesting a woman near Sardar Tara Singh Talav, Mulund East, on December 13. The police said the 31-year-old woman was jogging in the evening when the motorcycle-borne salesman, Aman Abdul Rehman Sheikh, had inappropriately touched below her waist and sped away. Though the woman chased him for a kilometre and jotted down the registration number of the motorcycle, the accused managed to escape from the crime scene, the police officer added.

The woman immediately approached the Navghar police and a case under relevant sections of the IPC was registered. The crime branch, too, began a parallel investigation into the matter. The woman had mentioned the registration number of the two-wheeler in her complaint but it turned out to be incorrect. However, the crime branch visited the spot, scanned CCTV footage of the area and the route the accused had taken to escape after molesting her.

The sleuths zeroed-in on a two-wheeler based on the description of the motorcycle given by the accused. The two-wheeler was seen near Anand Nagar toll plaza. "The registration number of this two-wheeler was almost the same as that given by the woman. We traced the owner of the two-wheeler and arrested Sheikh, who is the resident of Kurla," said the crime branch officer.

"We had formed a team of officers to investigate the case thoroughly. Our constable Deepak Khare worked very hard on this case and scanned large amounts of CCTV footage to nail the accused," said Satish Tavre, crime branch officer. Speaking to mid-day, the woman, who runs a business selling clothes online, has thanked the Mumbai police for cracking the case. "The cops were very cooperative. I had lost all hope but they worked relentlessly to solve the case within two weeks," the woman said.

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