Navi Mumbai: A 30-year-old deaf-mute woman travelling in the handicap coach of a CSMT-Panvel bound train was allegedly touched inappropriately by an unidentified man, who is also believed to be deaf-mute, travelling in the same coach.
The incident occurred on Friday around 7 pm between Belapur and Khandeshwar stations. After the woman confronted and slapped the perpetrator, he retaliated with a slap before other passengers intervened. The man departed at Khandeshwar station, after which the woman filed an FIR at Panvel GRP outpost. The accused faces charges under Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita for outraging a woman's modesty and causing voluntary hurt.
Assistant sub-inspector Niyaz Shaikh of Panvel GRP stated that the woman, a Khandeshwar resident, boarded the handicap coach at CSMT. She initially dismissed the touching as accidental due to crowding, but upon repeated occurrences confronted the man, leading to a physical altercation that fellow passengers had to break up. Senior inspector Vijay Tayade of Panvel GRP reported that efforts to locate the accused have been unsuccessful. Despite monitoring the handicap coach for two days, the man hasn't been spotted, he said.