Bengaluru: On Monday, a gutsy woman not only managed to chase her molester, she even nabbed him and handed him over to the police with the help of a good Samaritan and several onlookers who came to her aid.
Thirty-five-year-old freelance graphic designer, Pooja (name changed) was busy on her phone while on her way home to Sanjay Nagar on Monday night. Around 8:30 p.m., when she was crossing the pedestrian walk in front of the ISRO campus near RMV Layout close to her home, a man in his early 20s started following her.
The stretch was dimly lit. Pooja was shocked when the man suddenly grabbed her from behind. She started screaming loudly and managed to free herself from his grip. The man started to walk away quickly and then took to his heels.
By now Pooja had decided she wasn’t going to let him get away. She started running behind him, while she raised the alarm. “The stretch was quite busy for that time of evening and fortunately a good Samaritan stopped his car and asked me what was happening. I told him that the running man had misbehaved with me, so he took me in his car and helped me nab the offender further down the road,” recalled Pooja.
She continued, “He ran into adjacent cross streets, but we managed to follow him by asking pedestrians if they had seen a man running in that direction. The man had run into a dead-end road in the Judicial Layout and around 10 to 15 people collected, blocking his way,” Pooja said. The chase lasted for about 10-15 minutes, covering over a kilometre.
The Sanjay Nagar police was informed and the Hoysala team, in a matter of five minutes, rushed to the spot and apprehended the molester. The accused has been identified as Puttananja, 25, a native of Harapanahalli in Davangere who had come to the city to work as a driver. The Sanjay Nagar police have booked him for assault using criminal force on a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty and have arrested him.
