Mumbai crime: Teens molest foreigner, RPF accuses witness of lying

When Samajwadi Party chief chief Mulayam Singh Yadav had opposed capital punishment for rape and said last year that ldquoboys make mistakes why hang themrdquo his comments had sparked national outrage The Railway Police Force in Mumbai however seems to have gone one step further and decided that the best way to react to a molestation is to do nothing and in fact accuse the complainant of lyingAlso read Inappropriate touching is not a crime cop tells molested womanShailesh Kuckyanrsquos attempts to get a complaint registered went in vainWhat makes the RPFrsquos attitude even more shocking is that the alleged molestation was carried out by a group of 12 to 14yearolds who managed to go scotfree and may go on to target other women as they grow older and their victim was a foreigner Walking in the SP chiefrsquos footsteps the RPF personnel asked a man who had witnessed the incident to let it go since ldquochildrenrdquo were involvedThe incident took place at Ghatkopar station on Sunday and while the victim was seemingly too shookup to file a complaint the molestation was witnessed by a 27yearold man travelling in the same compartment as the kids When he approached the RPF to complain he was asked to mind his own business since the woman had not complained and when he insisted on action being taken he was accused by a female constable no less of lyingGropedThe incident took place on platform no 4 of Ghatkopar station when the 621 pm CSTbound fast train was about to leave As the foreigner alighted from the ladiesrsquo compartment of the train and was walking towards the exit four to five boys standing at the door of the compartment right next to hers targeted the womanldquoAll the boys seemed young and must have been 1214 years old The woman was walking at armrsquos length from the train and when it just began moving two of the teenagers pulled her tshirt Emboldened by this act one of their friends groped herThe foreigner seemed to be in a state of shock and before she or the other women walking with her could do anything the train had already gathered speedrdquo Shailesh Kuckyan who was standing just two doors behind the group of boys told middayKuckyan a Parel resident who is studying hotel management immediately tried contacting the railway helpline numbers 1275 and 9833331111 to register a complaint and request the authorities to nab the youngsters at Kurla the next stop for the fast train However both the numbers were unavailable despite repeated attempts Determined to ensure that justice was done Kuckyan got off at Kurla and approached the RPF authorities at the chowkie thereldquoI saw that the group was still in the compartment and I wanted to ask the RPF personnel to inform the police at the next stop which was Dadar to catch hold of them To my surprise I was asked to shut up and mind my own business because no formal complaint was registered by the woman who had been molestedrdquo he saidlsquoLet it gorsquoInstead of guiding Kuckyan to the Government Railway Police who could have registered a complaint in the matter RPF authorities allegedly asked Kuckyan to let the incident go ldquosince children were involvedrdquo When Kuckyan insisted that the miscreants should be caught the RPF personnel said they would inform their counterparts at DadarHowever when Kuckyan reached Dadar and checked with the personnel at the RPF chowkie there they said they hadnrsquot received any information ldquoI was surprised when a woman constable who was in charge at Dadar doubted me and accused me of lyingWhen I asked them to get the CCTV footage of the platform and check for themselves they asked me to go to Byculla and check Thatrsquos when I realised there was no point in running around when they were simply not interested in taking any actionrdquo said KuckyanNo complaintMeanwhile the alleged victim apparently saw no point in complaining either No complaint was registered at Kurla railway police station under whose jurisdiction the Ghatkopar station fallsThe police constable at Kurla station confirmed that they hadnrsquot been approached for any complaint of molestation and had received no information about any such incident taking place