Man Arrested for Allegedly Molesting Woman at Delhi Metro Station

The accused, Manav Agarwal, had fled to Nepal on 4 June, two days after the incident took place, the police said.

Image used for representational purposes only. 

(Photo: PTI)

The Delhi Police said on Wednesday, 6 July, that they had arrested a man for allegedly molesting a woman at the city's Jor Bagh metro station.

This comes after the woman, who is a resident of Gurugram, had taken to social media to describe the incident, which took place on 2 June.

The accused, identified as Manav Agarwal, is also a resident of Gurugram. He has been charged with Sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354A (sexual harassment and punishment for sexual harassment), and 354D (stalking) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Agarwal is unmarried and currently unemployed, as per the police.

'Accused Fled to Nepal 2 Days After the Incident': Police

The police said that the accused had gone to Kathmandu, Nepal on 4 June to escape arrest.

"From there, he was trying to obtain anticipatory bail, but the same was opposed by the staff of the Metro Police and rejected by the honourable court. Due to the continuous efforts of the Metro Police, the accused was apprehended from near gate No 2 outside Delhi's Saket Court," said Delhi Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Jitendra Mani.

Following the woman's social media post, the Delhi Police got in touch with her and recorded her statement.

She told the police that she had been molested on 2 June while she was travelling from Huda City Center to Jor Bagh Metro Station.

"She deboarded at MRS Jor Bagh where he also de-boarded and followed her on the platform on the pretext of verifying an address. While she was sitting on the bench at a platform of MRS Jor Bagh that person again showed her a file, on the pretext of verifying the address. When she was trying to see the file at that time he thrust his private part on her face," DCP Mani said.

"She ran away from the spot, and at midnight on the day of the incident she posted the entire episode on social media," Mani added.

The Woman's Description of the Incident

Writing about the incident in a long Twitter thread, the woman explained how the man asked for her help with an address while she was travelling on the yellow line of the Delhi Metro. After getting off at the Jor Bagh metro station, when she was trying to book a cab, the man approached her at the platform to confirm the address.

"I peered into his file that he was trying to show me. At this point I noticed that he was trying to thrust his uncovered penis in my face. He attempted to do this thrice. As soon as I noticed, I got up and ran because I was scared and couldn't think straight. I approached a policeman standing on the platform, but he flatly refused to help me and asked me to go upstairs to talk about it," she said.

The complainant said that she then went upstairs to find more personnel, who took her to the CCTV control room where she identified the culprit in the security footage.

"The entire incident was captured on the camera but then we saw him get into a different metro and leave. I asked them to do something about it but instead they started victim blaming me and said that I should've created a scene and that there's nothing they can do now since he managed to leave," the woman added.