Mumbai man claims he was taking a leak, denies masturbation allegation by American

Mumbai: The Colaba police has arrested Gopal Walmiki, the 26-year-old man who allegedly sexually harassed an American woman by masturbating in front of her on Colaba Street, in the early hours of Wednesday. He was later produced in a magistrate court, which granted him bail of Rs 5,000.

Walmiki is a resident of Colaba. His family said that all the allegations were false and that Gopal was just taking his routine morning walk when he was caught on camera by the woman.

A Colaba police official said, “Walmiki is resident of Bhid Bhanjan, Colaba. We arrested him on Wednesday at around 12.30 am from his house. We had sent his photo and sketches to our sources and we got the tip-off about him.”

After he was produced in the court, the public prosecutor told the court that the complainant in the case — Maryanna Abdo (35) — is an American citizen. She is the director of Panthon Company and has filed an FIR against the accused stating that on August 17 he masturbated on the road while looking at her when she was heading to hail a taxi to go to the office. She shouted at him and told him to come to the police station with her. Walmiki apologised to her and started moving towards the police station. As soon as they reached the end of Henry Road, he slipped away. Later, Ms Abdo uploaded his picture on a social networking site and posted about the incident, following which the police approached her and registered her complaint.

The public prosecutor sought police custody of the accused on the grounds that the police needs to conduct his identification parade and interrogate him.

However, Walmiki’s lawyer argued that his client could be called to the police station whenever required and he would co-operate with the investigators. He also pointed out that Walmiki was booked under Section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult modesty of a woman) of the IPC which was a bailable offence. The court has granted him bail.

Walmiki’s family has denied the allegations of the complainant. His older sister Lakshmi Walmiki claimed that her brother had a confrontation with the complainant in the first week of August and not on August 17 as claimed by the complainant. Their lawyer also took the same stand in the court.

“He did not masturbate in front of her. He goes for a morning walk at about 7 am every day. In the first week of August, he was peeing by the roadside, when this woman saw him. At the time she confronted him. She even gave him a lecture on the Swachha Bharat Abhiyan. He said sorry to her and left the place. We do not understand why she has woken up to file a police case after so many days and that too by distorting the facts,” Lakshmi said.

She further claimed that her brother was a commerce graduate and worked as a share broker in one of the firms in the Fountain area. He got married only two months ago. “Why would he come out to do such activities? This woman is unnecessarily spoiling his image. After my brother’s office manager came to know about the incident, he also called us to enquire. If they fire him from the job, it will be difficult for my family to even survive,” she said.

The Walmiki family migrated from Uttar Pradesh 40 years ago and have been living in Colaba since. His father, who worked as a peon in a private office, has retired. Walmiki has three siblings. While he and Lakshmi are married, a younger brother works in a bank and the youngest brother is a college student.