Mumbai: A 24-year-old woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by an auto driver and his friend, who also thrashed her father when he came to her rescue, police said on Saturday.
The incident comes after a case of sexual assault reported on a local train and a murder in Saki Naka, with a man accused of slitting his girlfriend’s neck inside a moving auto last month.
Driver took new route
The victim of Thursday night’s assault boarded the sharing auto at Mankhurd Railway Station. Her co-passengers soon got down at their destinations and she was the only one left.
As the vehicle neared her destination, the driver, Irfan Sheikh, 35, took a U-turn. The woman asked him to stop but Sheikh told her he wanted to take another route.
When she protested and asked him to stop the vehicle, Sheikh allegedly slapped her and grabbed her chest.
The victim then called her father and gave him her location. At the same time, Sheikh made a call and called one of his friends, near Tanaji Malusare Chowk, towards Agarwadi Village road.
Victim's father thrashed by accused
Shahgir Mohammad Patel, 23, soon reached the spot and started assaulting the woman. Her worried father, who arrived some time later, was also brutally thrashed by the two men. This continued till the early hours of Friday, when the woman and her father managed to escape and reach Mankhurd station. They registered a complaint against the two accused.
The police tracked down Sheikh and Patel and arrested them both. An official said Sheikh did not have an auto licence and he was under the influence of drugs at the time of the incident.
A case has been registered against the two under Sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult) and 34 (common intent) of the Indian Penal Code.
The accused were presented in court on Friday and remanded to police custody for two days.
