Fourteen men arrested after women molested in Mumbai (Roundup)

Jan 4, 2008, 13:18 GMT

New Delhi - Fourteen men were arrested on Friday in connection with the molestation of two women on New Year's Eve in the Indian financial hub of Mumbai, police said.

Four of the arrested were identified as having been present during the assault on the two women as they left a hotel in Mumbai's tony Juhu area on Monday on the basis of photographs published in a newspaper, joint commissioner of Mumbai police KL Prasad said.

The suspects, all young men aged between 18 and 27, were arrested from different parts of the city on Thursday night.

The police were still looking for some others suspected of being involved in the mob assault, Prasad said.

All the arrested were produced at a local court on Friday and were given bail for surety of 10,000 rupees (about 254 dollars) each. All 14 had been charged with unlawful association.

The police were planning an identification parade after which some of the arrested could be charged with molestation, Prasad said.

He said the two women were residents of California in the United States who were on vacation in India to visit relatives in Gujarat and spend New Year's in Mumbai.

'We learnt that they planned to fly back to the US by January 10. We have asked the force to wrap up the arrests by then,' Prasad said.

He said officers had spoken to the victims and their relatives by telephone and told them they would be treated as witnesses and not complainants. 'In this case, we (the police) are the complainant,' Prasad said.

A series of photographs in the Hindustan Times newspaper a day after the incident showed a group of 70 to 80 men molesting the women on a street outside the hotel.

The accompanying report said the mob hounded the women soon after they emerged from the hotel with two male friends a couple of hours after midnight.

The men, many of them inebriated, tore up the women's clothes, molested and groped them while their male companions, overpowered by the crowd, watched helplessly, the report said.

Photographers of the daily alerted the traffic police, after which a police team chased away the mob and took the victims to a nearby police station.

The incident shocked and angered local residents and people in other Indian cities, with many criticizing the police, saying the incident raised doubts on the safety of women in Mumbai, generally considered one of the safest cities in India for women.

In a similar incident, a girl was molested by New Year's revellers at Mumbai's Gateway of India monument in 2006.