The Yeshwantpur police have arrested five students of a reputed college here on charge of harassing a national-level swimmer in Mathikere on Saturday.
According to police, the swimmer and her friends were returning home from a party on Saturday night when the incident took place. Five students, who were celebrating a friend’s birthday, passed lewd comments at her from the third floor of the house in J.P. Park area in Mathikere.
Taking strong objection to it, the victim called the police control room and filed an oral complaint. Based on the control room alert, the Yeshwantpur police rushed to the spot and detained the five men and took them to the police station.
But as the victim refused to file a case, the five men were sent away after being warned. However, police seized their car for further investigation.
The incident snowballed into a controversy on Sunday after the victim’s family friend, a city-based advocate, posted information about the incident on a social media site.
Senior police officers, who came to know about it, directed the Yeshwantpur police inspector to record the victim’s statement. When the inspector went to the victim’s house, she refused to file a formal complaint but said that she would ask her swimming coach and then take a call.
Meanwhile, Nihar Ameen, Head Coach at Dolphin Aquatics, said: “This incident happened outside the swimming pool last night. We have adequate security in the pool complex. It has been blown out of proportion. No Dolphin swimmer was involved in what happened.”
Additional Commissioner of Police (West) Alok Kumar spoke to the victim over phone and tried to convince her to file a formal complaint, and also assured her of security.
“Initially, the victim was apprehensive.We had to persuade her to file a complaint so that the five men do not repeat this,” Mr. Kumar said.
The victim finally filed a complaint based on which the police arrested Nitin Shariff (23), Irshad (24), Nahaz (23), Sumith (23) and Owasi (22), and registered a case against them under IPC section 509 (eve-teasing) and 354 (outraging the modesty).
Initially the victim was apprehensive. We had to persuade her to file a complaint so that the five men do not repeat it.
Alok Kumar
Additional Commissioner of
Police (West)
