16 October,2017 02:45 PM IST | Mumbai | Samiullah Khan
Based on complaint of 21-year-old, Malad police are probing if the data was overwritten deliberately; section on destruction of evidence added in FIR
A 21-year-old woman has lodged an FIR with the Bangur Nagar police, alleging that an unknown person, who could possibly be from her group of friends, molested her in a pub in Malad. She claims she tried to look for the accused by asking the pub for CCTV footage, but the management refused to give it to her citing concerns of privacy.
The woman says the incident occurred on September 30 at Agent Jack's in Malad West
As per the woman, she visited the pub Agent Jack's, which is located on Link Road in Malad West on September 30, with some of her friends. Three days later, she went to the same place, met the owner Dibyendu Bindal and told him that on her last visit, someone had molested her. She asked Bindal for CCTV footage of the two hours she was at the club that day as she wanted to know who the molester was.
The woman is seeking footage of the two hours she was at the Agent Jack's on September 30 to look for her molester
Bindal allegedly told the woman they can't give the footage, citing privacy reasons. He asked her to go to the police and assured he would cooperate with them in the case.
Seeking politico's help
However, instead of going to the police first, the woman approached a local politician, who accompanied her to the club to ask for the footage, but Bindal gave the politician the same reason for not being able to provide it. The woman finally approached the cops the same day and filed a complaint against an unknown person.
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The woman told cops she suspects the molester could be someone from the group of friends she went to the club with, which is why she's insisting on seeing the footage. She has also told cops that Bindal has allegedly deleted the footage for the day the incident occurred to save the culprits, which is why he isn't providing her with a copy. Based on her complaint, the police have also added section 201 in the FIR.
Cops probe allegations
It has been filed under sections 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) of the Indian Penal Code.
"We will investigate the allegations made by the woman. If it is found that the footage was deleted to save the accused, even he [the owner] can be named in the FIR," said senior inspector Santosh Bhandare from Bangur Nagar police station. When mid-day contacted the woman, she said she would revert back, but later did not answer calls or messages.
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Trying to retrieve data
Meanwhile, Bindal said, "If such an incident had happened, she should have informed us at that time itself. We have our guards who would have helped her. We also suggested to her that since we can't give the CCTV footage, she should go to the police station and we will co-operate with the cops."
As far as the allegation regarding the deletion of the footage is concerned, Bindal said it gets overwritten after a certain point of time due to small memory storage space. "Despite this, we are trying to retrieve the deleted data with the help of technicians after the police approached us," said Bindal.
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