Mumbai: A week after a 23-year-old girl was molested and thrown out of a running auto-rickshaw in Thane, the police has arrested the two accused — auto-rickshaw driver Santosh Lokhande (38) and his friend Lahu Ghogre (36). The police zeroed in on the driver after his wife registered a missing person’s complaint. After the incident, the accused auto-rickshaw was on the run, and the police officers didn’t have any clues.
After the wife of the accused filed the complaint, the police became suspicious. The girl was molested on the same day the woman filed the missing complaint. The police realised that according to the woman’s complaint her husband had gone missing on Thursday, which raised a possibility that he could be one of the accused in the molestation case.
The police arrested Lokhande on Tuesday night after receiving information that a man admitted to a hospital resembles the person, who had gone missing.
The 23-year-old girl was molested in an auto-rickshaw.(Photo: Deepak Kurkunde)
The accused claimed that they had planned to snatch the girl’s chain, but as she wasn’t wearing any gold ornament, they molested her and threw her out of the auto-rickshaw. For around six days, the Thane police officials were searching for the auto-rickshaw driver. The police checked more than 3,000 auto-rickshaws and questioned its driver, but didn’t find any clues.
Joint CP, Thane, Madhukar Pandey said, “We became suspicious after the woman filed the missing complaint. We started searching for him. Our officials received information that a person, who looks like him, has been admitted to the civil hospital with minor injury. Our team immediately went there and arrested him.”
According to police officials, Lokhande, who didn’t have enough money to buy a drink, decided with his friend Ghogre to snatch the chain of a passenger on night of June 8.
The police said, “The accused told the girl that it is a share auto-rickshaw and picked her up. During their interrogation, the accused said that they just wanted to steal her chain, but as she wasn’t wearing any gold ornaments, they assaulted her and threw her out of the rickshaw.”
A 23-year-old woman was allegedly molested by the duo in an auto-rickshaw and later threw her out of the vehicle on June 8, the police said.
