Auto driver molests, robs 65-year-old, held

Mumbai: Unit 11 of the crime branch has arrested an auto-rickshaw driver (31) after he molested, assaulted and robbed a woman (65) in Dahisar on September 21.

The incident took place when the woman was waiting at a bus stop, and the accused approached her and managed to convince her that he knew her son, who, he insisted, was having an extramarital affair.

Subsequently, he offered to take her to a hotel where her son was purportedly with the “other woman”. However, he drove the woman through unknown alleys and took her to an isolated spot on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway where he disrobed her, beat her, and robbed her of her valuables.

The driver was identified as Jignesh Jitendra Rajani alias Jivala, who stays in the Wagheshwari slums at Malad (east). Rajani hails from Gujarat and targeted the woman after seeing the jewellery she was wearing, officials said. A team headed by senior inspector Chimaji Adhav apprehended him.

The police said that after Rajani, the accused spotted the senior citizen at the bus stop, he struck a conversation with her and ferried her across the Bhayandar creek bridge in his rickshaw.

A crime branch officer said, “The only link we had was the colour of the saree that the woman wore that day. She was wearing a yellow saree and hence, we scanned CCTV cameras on the routes she was driven and looked for passengers wearing a yellow saree.”

The victim also helped identify the driver. The accused has been handed over to the MHB Colony police station for further investigation, and the crime branch has asked the police to add molestation charges to those of cheating and robbery against Rajani.