Staffers of a hotel rushed to the woman’s help and tried to catch one of the men, who brandished a lethal weapon at them and managed to escape.
Anika (name changed), from Assam, who works as a beautician, had to rush to a friend’s house near Lingarajapuram, east Bengaluru on her scooter on some urgent errand in the small hours of Wednesday. After finishing the work, she headed back home. When she was checking on Google Maps on her phone to find her way, two scooter-borne men in their 20s approached her around 4.15am.
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“The rider touched me inappropriately and passed obscene comments. When I objected, he started calling me sister. He spoke to me in Hindi and said, ‘What happened sister, did you break up with your boyfriend? You wanna come with us? We will spend some time and drop you back’,” Anika told TOI.
“I realised I was in danger and started riding. The duo followed me and again intercepted my scooter. The rider again touched me inappropriately and spoke obscenely. I shouted at him and he left. As I started riding, he again followed and sexually harassed me for the third time by touching me inappropriately,” Anika said.
“The pillion rider didn’t touch me, but he was egging on the rider. They followed me for almost 15 minutes, I didn’t know what to do. When he tried to intercept my vehicle for the fourth time, I stopped my scooter in front of a fuel station around 4:30am, but it was closed. I was cried loudly and shouted at him. I told him in Hindi, ‘You kill me or I will kill you. You want to do it with me, then kill me’,” she said.
“A hotel nearby was open and as I went near it, the duo sped away. Four men from the hotel came to me and enquired about what happened. When I was explaining to them about the abuse, the rider returned to the spot alone. He again tried to approach me. The hotel staff tried to catch him. The rider pulled out a dagger and brandished it at them. He was not scared at all or in a hurry to escape. He was daring people to catch him even as he brandished the weapon,” Anika said.
“He later sped away from the spot. I brought the incident to the notice of police and went home,” she said. Later in the evening, Anika lodged a complaint with Banasawadi police. “A CCTV camera of the hotel captured him harassing me and brandishing the dagger at the people who tried to catch him,” she added.
A senior police officer said, “The miscreants used a black scooter without a registration number. We have collected the footage and are making efforts to nab them. A case has been registered under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 351 (criminal intimidation), 75 (sexual harassment), and 78 (stalking).”
