22-year-old woman molested in Mumbai local; culprit gets away

An incident that took place on Thursday night is raising serious concern about women's safety in Mumbai's local trains. A 22-year-old female MBA student sitting in the ladies compartment in a Churchgate-bound train was stripped and molested by a man in his 20s. He jumped off the train before he could be caught. 

The woman reportedly took the Churchgate local at Malad station and was travelling in the ladies compartment behind the motorman’s cabin. Although there was no cop keeping watch in the coach, there were several other female commuters travelling in the same compartment with her. The compartment emptied when the train reached Grant Road station and the woman was left alone. This was when the man entered the compartment. 

As soon as the train started moving the youth made an attempt at molesting her, tearing her clothes off, a railway official told Mid-Day. When the train halted at a signal just before the Marine Lines station, he jumped off the  train and got away. It was at Marine Lines that two other men helped her off the train and took her to the station master. According to Zee, this incident took place at around 11 pm on Thursday night. 

Railway Police has booked a suo moto complaint against the offender under Section 162 (entering carriage or other place reserved for females) and 145(b) (committing any nuisance or act of indecency) of The Railways Act. Four teams have been formed to nab the guy, who was wearing a blue T-shirt and red pants as per CCTV footage.

Railway Police Commissioner Madhukar Pandey told Mid-Day,"Usually, there are Railway police deployed in ladies compartments at night, but on Thursday, the staffer could not report for duty as there was some technical problem at Borivali station, which delayed the cop's arrival." 

The woman hasn't filed a complaint yet and told Mid-Day that her parents refused to let her to do so. She said she didn't want to speak about the incident again.