24, Feb 2016

Feb 24 2016 : The Times of India (Mumbai)
Nitasha Natu
Mumbai

A day after she was sexually harassed on a suburban local near Churchgate, the 18-year-old victim told TOI that the accused had barged into the coach with no other motive as he did not try to steal her cellphone or handbag.Pandi Vanniyar, 20, was arrested by a joint team of the RPF and the GRP , early on Tuesday, even as he was preparing to board a ladies coach once again. Officials suspect Vanniyar eyed locals post 6am, when the armed escorting of ladies coaches ends, and entered only those ladies compartments where there was a solo traveller.
The teen, a law student, lives with her parents in south Mumbai and was headed for her classes at Matunga. She boarded the second-class compartment of a local at 6.14am on Monday . “Vanniyar jumped into my coach after the train started from Churchgate.Usually , there is an off-duty cop who travels in the compartment but he wasn’t around on Monday . The accused started to harass me. I pushed him away and screamed for help. When the train halted near Wankhede stadium, he jumped off. I saw him head back to Churchgate, hanging out of the closed door of another local,“ the victim said. She got off at Marine Lines where someone directed her to the Churchgate railway police.“The cops kept asking me if I was sure about pressing charges and suggested I should ask my parents. But I told them I was certain,“ she added.