Mumbai Crime: Two ’drunk’ men harass women over parking tiff; held

Cops swing into action after women tape their abusers, who were allegedly drunk, and seek help on the Mumbai Police Twitter handle. The incident happened on the busy Andheri Link road

Mumbai Crime: Two 'drunk' men harass women over parking tiff; held

Romi Kohli works at a call centre and Bunty Madhrani is an estate agent

Andheri resident Ashmita Jaggi, 28, who is an actor, was hoping to have a girls' night out on Saturday. But before it could even begin, their evening was soured by allegedly drunken men who harassed and threatened her and her friend over a parking spot on the busy Andheri Link road. On Monday, the Amboli police arrested the two accused.

The incident occurred on November 17, when Jaggi and her friends were heading to a restaurant located close to the Citi Mall on the Andheri Link road. She waited outside for a red Hyundai Eon to move so she could park, while some of her friends went in to get a table. A woman who was seated in the car asked them to wait for her 'boys,' who'd be there any minute.

Romi Kohli

Detailing the incident, Jaggi later wrote in a Facebook post, "We patiently waited. After 10 minutes, I witnessed a heavy man waddling his way to the driver's seat. He started the car and reversed it...before I knew it, he bangs into my car from behind. I get out of the car and yell, 'You are clearly drunk and you've just banged my car. Wake up, let someone else drive."

"While I'm saying this, one man and his friend 'Bunty' come to me and start apologizing for the hit. I calm my nerves somehow and get back into my car...take it a little ahead... But Mr drunk Romi sir doesn't budge... He refuses to move from the driver's seat. I'm scared he's either going to bash my car again or maybe kill someone else on the road because of his drunken state."

Bunty Madhrani

Hurling abuses
Jaggi then asked the two men who'd apologised to her to get someone 'sober' to drive, "However, because they too were horribly drunk, they chose to start hurling abuses, bang my car, show offensive gestures and threaten to harm us. We immediately informed the police... took a video recording of the harassment." She refused to leave from the spot and the tiff continued for half an hour.

"A crowd of around 60 people gathered on the busy street. "All these spectators kept urging us to leave because we were all girls and these idiots were drunks who were capable of harming us. So to save ourselves, we had to leave," Jaggi wrote in the post.

Ashmita Jaggi

Accused arrested
While she attached a one minute 54 second video about the incident on Facebook, her friend Benaaz Irani tweeted to the Mumbai police with pictures of the car's number plate. Cops immediately swung into action.

PI Daya Nayak of Amboli police station said, "As soon as the victim's friend alerted us on Twitter [on Saturday], we reached out to her and the victim to file a case. We were ready to send our team to their residence to record the statement.

On Monday morning, she came to the police station to file a case and we have booked both the accused under sections 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code." On Monday evening, the Amboli police arrested the two accused, namely Romi Kohli who works at a call centre and Bunty Madhrani, a real estate agent.

After filing the case Jaggi said, "I filed an FIR because such kind of behaviour should not be tolerated. One has to be responsible. I couldn't sleep because of the way both the men had [verbally] abused me and made obscene gestures at me. I want both of them to be punished."

The other side
Speaking to mid-day on Sunday, one of the accused, Romi Kohli, said, "We didn't do anything. She began verbally abusing us first over a parking issue. She pushed me as well, but we don't have any video recording from our side to publicise the issue. I'm ready to apologise to her." Bunty, the other accused said, "I apologised to her right then, and I'm ready to say sorry even now. It began with a parking issue; our vehicle did bang her car but there was no damage. I said sorry to both her and her friend, but she got angry and pushed my friend Romy, who fell. I got angry because I was drunk."

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