Teenage girl allegedly molested in Thane auto-rickshaw, 2 arrested

This is the second incident this month of molestation in an auto-rickshaw in the district.

Thane, June 19: Police have arrested two persons, including an auto-rickshaw driver, for allegedly kidnapping and molesting a teenage girl in a vehicle in Dombivli in Mumbai.

The 17-year-old survivor, a resident of Dombivli, was walking towards home from her classes on June 12 at around 6 pm when the two men dragged her into the auto-rickshaw and drove away, Thane police PRO Sukhada Narkar said.

The man sitting on the back seat allegedly molested the girl and when she raised an alarm, he shut her mouth, Narkar said.

As the rickshaw moved ahead, the girl spotted her brother and tried to reach out to him. However, the auto-rickshaw driver drove away, the survivor said in her complaint filed on June 17, she said.

Later, as the rickshaw slowed down, the girl jumped out and managed to save herself, police said.

Based on the complaint, the accused auto-rickshaw driver Maunsingh Rajendra Singh 20 and co-passenger Dhirendra Mehta 26, a tempo driver by profession were arrested on Sunday, the official said in a release.

They have been booked under IPC sections 354(a) sexual harassment, 363 kidnapping and relevant provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence Act, police added.

Earlier on June 7, a 23-year-old woman was molested by a male co-passenger in a shared auto-rickshaw and then thrown out at an isolated spot on Pokhran Road in the city at around 9.30 pm.

The co-passenger and the auto driver were later arrested. In August 2014, a 24-year-old software professional, had suffered serious injuries, when she jumped from a moving auto rickshaw in Thane after the driver allegedly tried to kidnap her.

PTI