Lone young woman groped, attacked by 2 men on Baner Rd

Duo molested woman as she returned home alone on her bike; when she hit back in self-defence, they
banged her head on her bike and attempted to throttle her

While Baner flourishes as an up-andcoming hospitality location of the city, lined with numerous new and upscale establishments advertising good food, tipple and retail, it continues to hide a seamy underbelly of wanton crime — clearly belying the same lack of safety for women seen across India.

This appalling undercurrent of misogyny and violence became apparent in the wee hours of Sunday, when a 25- year-old female resident of Baner was returning home alone on her two-wheeler from a casual evening of fun and laughter with her friends. As the woman traversed the usually safe, short stretch between Elephant and Co.
and her residence, the journey took a nightmarish turn around 2.20 am, when two men on a bike glided past her Activa and hit her on the chest, in the lane next to the Bata Showroom, a well-known landmark along the route.

Horrified and shaken, the woman halted her bike on the roadside and immediately called a male friend who lives close by to pick her up. The young animal welfare activist told Mirror, “I was in a state of shock and reached out to a friend for help. Alarmingly, those same men who had assaulted me turned back and came and stood nearby.

They began pretending that they were there to help me, and started touching me. Little did they know that the first time itself when they had tried to grope me, I had noticed their attire and the make of their vehicle. I told them to get away from me and not touch me. But, they refused to listen. I told them repeatedly to move away, and out of desperation, I finally hit out and slapped one of them.”

But this simple act of self-defence turned things further awry. Seemingly incensed at her ‘temerity’, the men became furious; one of them grabbed her hair to bang her head onto the speedometer of her bike, causing her nose to bleed profusely. At the same time, the other man began choking her.

“My vision started fading when he began strangling me, but I saw one of them trying to lift a huge pot to hit me with. When he couldn’t, they started dragging me to the pot,” narrated the traumatised woman.

Meanwhile, her friend had remained on the call with her and heard the entire incident as it took place. The Baner resident told Mirror, “I first received a hysterical call from her as she was crying, a few hours after midnight. She told me that a man on a bike had hit her on her chest and she was in a state of shock. My home is at a walking distance from where she was, so I ran down, still on the call with her — suddenly, I heard her screaming for help.

I rushed to the spot and saw two men pulling her by her hair in the middle of the road. I ran over and pushed them away.”

The woman also did not lose her presence of mind and immediately grabbed the bike key of the assailants before calling the police. “The cops came to the spot around 15-20 minutes later. Both the attackers kept repeating that I had hit one of them first, justifying what they had done by hitting me back,” she said.

On hearing the exchange, police arrested the two accused, Avinash Dhankude and Shekhar Kalamkar, and filed an FIR against them by 5 am on Sunday. Now, they will be produced in court.

Assistant police inspector DS Shinde of Chaturshringi police station confirmed, “Early on Sunday morning, when the incident took place, we immediately filed the FIR and arrested the accused. It was a case of serious assault on a woman. The duo will be produced before court and an investigation into what happened is in process. We are gathering evidence and taking the matter very seriously.” Cops are also gathering closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera footage from buildings around the crime scene.

For now, Dhankude and Kalamkar have been booked under sections 354 (assault on a woman to outrage her modesty), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 504 (intentional insult provoking breach of the peace) of the Indian Penal Code.

Early on Sunday morning after the incident, we immediately filed the FIR and arrested the accused. It was a case of serious assault on a woman. The duo will be produced in court. We are gathering evidence and investigating the matter seriously

— API DS Shinde, Chaturshringi PS

Please credit and share this article with others using this link:
https://punemirror.indiatimes.com/pune/cover-story/lone-young-woman-groped-attacked-by-2-men-on-baner-rd/articleshow/68455727.cms