Ganpati visarjan means a day of mixed blessings for us photographers. It is a holiday, yet we are &lsquo;on duty&rsquo;. Our minds are always working, looking for the best shot and the unusual occurrence. The crowd is always moving, the mass of people is like a river, constantly shifting and changing. <h2 class="footer_style"> Pervert No 1</h2> <img alt="Girl molested, groped by a group of men, Lalbaugcha Raja, Bharatmata cinema" src="http://images.mid-day.com/2013/sep/Molestation.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 444px;" /> In the midst of the mayhem, crimes and other misdeeds often go unnoticed. But being at a vantage point, my lens happened to capture the shocking incident of a female devotee being molested in the middle of the crowd that was following Lalbaugcha Raja. <h2 class="footer_style"> Pervert No 2</h2> <img alt="Girl molested, groped by a group of men, Lalbaugcha Raja, Bharatmata cinema" src="http://images.mid-day.com/2013/sep/Molestation-1.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 452px;" /> How it happened In order to get a bird&rsquo;s-eye view of the scene, I was shooting from atop the Lalbaug flyover. A couple of my colleagues were there too, as well as other lensmen. My aim was to find out-of-the-ordinary images, but I never imagined what I would see. <img border="0" height="1" src="http://web.ventunotech.com/beacon/vtpixpc.gif?pid=1264&amp;pixelfrom=op" style="-webkit-user-select:none;border:0px;" width="1" /> <object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" height="325" id="ventuno_player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="405"> <param name="movie" value="http://player.ventunotech.com/vtn_player_2.swf?vID=MTYwMjM4fHwxMjY0fHw0MTd8fDEsMiwx" /> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /> <embed allowfullscreen="true" allownetworking="all" allowscriptaccess="always" height="325" src="http://player.ventunotech.com/vtn_player_2.swf?vID=MTYwMjM4fHwxMjY0fHw0MTd8fDEsMiwx" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="405"></embed> </object> MiD Day photographer Atul Kamble reveals the shocking scenes that he witnessed while covering Lalbaugcha Raja&#39;s visarjan procession <h2 class="footer_style"> Pervert No 3</h2> <img alt="Girl molested, groped by a group of men, Lalbaugcha Raja, Bharatmata cinema" src="http://images.mid-day.com/2013/sep/Molestation-2.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 382px;" /> This girl was repeatedly groped by a group of men as she tried to make her way away from the crowd that was following Lalbaugcha Raja near Bharatmata cinema, Parel, on Wednesday afternoon. Lalbaugcha Raja takes a turn at the Bharatmata Cinema junction, on Ambedkar Road. It&rsquo;s an ideal spot for photographs, and I was stationed on the flyover just near the junction. I was looking for what we call &lsquo;mood&rsquo; shots, something different from the regular images of the procession. Hence my eye was on the movement of the people. <img alt="Girl molested, groped by a group of men, Lalbaugcha Raja, Bharatmata cinema" src="http://images.mid-day.com/2013/sep/Molestation-3_1.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 427px;" /> On the prowl: Photographs taken by our lensman show the shocking way in which a young girl is repeatedly grabbed and molested by some men in the procession. The molester seems to be adept at disguising his movements, making it look like he is just jostling people. But the photographs spell out the truth. Pics/Atul Kamble Around 1.30 pm, I noticed a girl moving quite fast, as if she was battling her way through the crowd. This seemed unusual to me so I trained my lens on her. She seemed to be accompanied by a boy and two other women. I then noticed that there were a few men who seemed to be touching people excessively in the guise of pushing them along. <img alt="Girl molested, groped by a group of men, Lalbaugcha Raja, Bharatmata cinema" src="http://images.mid-day.com/2013/sep/Molestation-4_1.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 390px;" /> I actually saw the man grab the girl, not once but several times, on the pretext of stabilising himself. In the heaving mass of people around, the girl was already finding it difficult to keep her balance and to keep moving. <img alt="Girl molested, groped by a group of men, Lalbaugcha Raja, Bharatmata cinema" src="http://images.mid-day.com/2013/sep/Molestation-5_1.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 373px;" /> Fighting off a molester was next to impossible. Moreover, as the pictures show, the man was adept at disguising his movements, to make it look like he was just jostling people like everyone else was doing. But his actions were clearly that of a molester. There also seemed to be other men with similar intentions. <img alt="Girl molested, groped by a group of men, Lalbaugcha Raja, Bharatmata cinema" src="http://images.mid-day.com/2013/sep/Molestation-6_1.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 414px;" /> These men appeared to be professional molesters, mingling with the crowd with one specific aim, just like pickpockets do. But what they steal is worse than purses and wallets. <img alt="" src="http://images.mid-day.com/2013/sep/molester.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 430px;" /> My heart went out to the girl, but there was little I could do from the height of the flyover. There was no way to alert the police in the vicinity, and I could not see any uniforms nearby, as all the cops were near the idol&rsquo;s truck, which was quite far away from where this incident was happening. All I could do was to keep shooting and capture the heinous act and hope that the pictures help bring the culprits to justice. Cops speak Joint Commissioner of Police, Sadanand Date, said, &ldquo;I cannot comment on it unless I see the photographs.&rdquo; Additional Commissioner of Police (Central Region), Praveen Salunkhe, said, &ldquo;I am on leave.&rdquo; Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone IV), D Karale, said, &ldquo;I cannot comment on this as I am busy at my relative&#39;s place.&rdquo; Senior Police Inspector Sunil Tondwankar of Bhoiwada police station said, &ldquo;There was a foolproof bandobast at the spot. We have not come across any such incident or complaint so far.&rdquo;u00a0

These images captured by Atul Kamble reveal how some perverts took the opportunity of the massive crowd at Lalbaugcha Raja's immersion procession in Parel to grope and molest women

Woman molested at Lalbaugcha Raja's visarjan procession

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