Pappu Yadav, who was nabbed at Grant Road station, denies molesting the victim .
Mumbai : The Railway Protection Force (RPF) on Monday nabbed the man who allegedly molested and attempted rape on a 22-year-old MBA student while she was travelling in an unguarded ladies compartment of a Churchgate-bound slow local on Thursday night.
The police had retrieved the image of the accused from the footage of CCTV cameras installed at the station.
Seen wearing a blue T-shirt and red coloured pant, the picture of the accused was captured at Grant Road station. Armed with the photograph, the Government Railway Police (GRP) and RPF formed two separate teams and distributed the picture to some of the pimps near Grant Road station. One of the pimps, who is also a police informer, shared with RPF some vital details about the accused.
The police spotted the accused at Kamathipura, near the red light area, and followed him till Grant Road station where they nabbed him at around 12:15 pm. Identified as Pappu Yadav, the 19-year-old hails from Odisha and was living in Mumbai for about a year now. Sources say that when Yadav was arrested, he was reeking of alcohol and the cops also recovered a pack of condoms from him.
“The accused works in a restaurant as a waiter. We suspect that he was also under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident,” said Anand Vijay Jha, senior divisional security commissioner, RPF. During interrogation, Yadav denied that he molested the victim. “When I got into the compartment I saw that the girl was sleeping. I just slapped her to wake her up so that she doesn’t miss her station. However, she slapped me back and then we got into a tussle,” he said. Meanwhile, the police are still waiting for the victim to identify the accused before they can decide on the charges and take the case ahead. Also, the GRP will be conducting an inquiry to find out why the GRP constable (escort) wasn’t present in the compartment at the time of the incident, and way to deal with such situations.
