A 27-year-old auto driver has been arrested for allegedly molesting and beating a 20-year-old woman near the railway station here, police said today.
According to PI S S Avhad of Thane Nagar police station, the incident took place last night around 8 pm.
The woman was standing near the station to cross a busy road when the accused identified as Sikandar Sheikh made some obscene gestures towards her. When she objected and raised an alarm, the driver verbally abused her following which the woman slapped him, the police official said.
Enraged, the accused allegedly roughed up the woman, he said.
Sheikh was arrested under sections 354 (assault or use of criminal force on a woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354 (A)(sexual harassment), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC, the official said.
Last month, a 23-year-old woman was allegedly molested by a male co-passenger in a share auto rickshaw and later thrown out of the vehicle in the city.
Thane Joint Commissioner of Police Madhukar Pandey had recently made it mandatory for auto rickshaws to display their details as well as that of the vehicle at the back of the driver seats. However, the orders are yet to be implemented, police sources said.
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