I was only urinating, says Mumbai youth accused of flashing foreigner

After an American woman tweeted about a youth who allegedly masturbated at her in broad daylight near Colaba causeway the accused has come forward with his own version of events ldquoI was urinating thereWhen I finished the foreign woman came from behind and saw me zip up my shorts Our eyes met and suddenly she started screamingrdquo said the 25yearold who was arrested in the wee hours of Wednesday after which he was granted bail Read StoryMan held for masturbating at US woman in Mumbai gets bailThe woman posted this picture of the accused on Twitter sparking an outrage and catching the attention of the CM who pushed the cops to find and arrest him in two daysHe added that the whole incident was a misunderstanding and he had been defamed and falsely implicated midday had highlighted the episode that took place on Monday morning after which the woman tweeted a picture of the youth along with the allegation She tweeted ldquoPlease RTthis man just masturbated at me on the street in broad daylightRan away after a confrontationrdquo The post sent Twitter into overdrive and even caught the attention of the Chief Minister who intervened and ensured that the very next day the Colaba police registered an FIR in the matter under section 509 Word gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman of the IPCWith intense pressure to perform the cops circulated the image of the youth on WhatsApp until they discovered his identity Gopal Valmiki a resident of Colaba Two days later the police arrested Valmiki and presented him in court when he was granted bailValmikirsquos family maintains that he is innocent ldquoWe are a family of seven and half are females Our brother could not have done this He is an educated man and works in the share market He even got married a few months agordquo his siblings told middayAlso ReadUS woman takes to Twitter to nab man who masturbated at her in South MumbaiAs Valmiki tells the tale he had gone on a morning walk and needed to attend to naturersquos call There was no public toilet there so he was forced to relieve himself between two parked cars It was as he was zipping up that the woman spotted him and began to screamHis brother added ldquoTwo passersby caught my brother as the woman began screaming They decided to take my brother to the police station On the way there my brother explained to the woman that it was a clear case of misunderstanding My brother never tried to escape The woman let him off near Electric House in ColabardquoHis sister in turn said it was unfair of the woman to publicly malign Valmiki instead of filing a police complaint against him Claiming the family was unaware of the incident until much later she added ldquoThe woman let off my brother and later posted a picture of him on TwitterShe should have gone to the police station and filed a complaint instead of defaming my brother publicly Then because of the pressure she filed the complaint later If we had known about the incident earlier we would have gone to the police station ourselvesrdquoldquoWe have been staying in Colaba since childhood and foreigners regularly visit this area but my brother has never been involved in any such act in the past People are calling it perverted and shameful I want to tell everyone that my brother is innocentrdquo she addedFinding ValmikiAfter the public outrage and the CMrsquos intervention in the matter there was huge pressure on cops to arrest the accused A police source said ldquoAs we had no clue about the accused we made a special WhatsApp group connecting informers from residential associations and committees We kept adding more and more people to the lsquoEyes and Earsrsquo group and sent everyone the accusedrsquos photo until someone identified himrdquo