Surat: Police on Wednesday nabbed a 19-year-old man who had gone on a molestation spree at Aman Society in Udhna on Sunday evening. The city police had formed seven teams of 100 personnel who spent sleepless nights to check the footages of 700 CCTVs on the 12km route the man travelled after committing the crime.
After a video went viral, there was huge public anger over such incidents and the police were under pressure to crack the case. After the arrest, police learnt that the accused, Mohammad Naeemuddin alias Arman Abdul Jabbatar (19), had molested two more girls in the same society.
DCP (Zone II) Bhagirath Gadhvi said: “After we received the complaint, we made teams comprising Udhna surveillance squad, five police stations under Zone II, and the DCB. The teams started working and traced him by watching 700 CCTVs of societies, shops, SMC, and police on the 12km route the man travelled to reach his home in Un village.”
Jabbatar is a native of Katihar district in Bihar and had come to Surat one and a half years ago for labour work. “We are investigating if he was involved in other such activities,” Gadhvi said.
The accused confessed that he would always get excited after seeing girls. On the day of the incident, he was free as it was a Sunday. As people come to the evening market in large numbers outside Aman Society, he went to the market to see women and girls. He had known about Aman Society from his previous visit there.
On Sunday evening, he entered the market and started molesting the girls who came on his way. He groped a couple of girls and made inappropriate sexual advances at them. When the girls became alert, he left the society.
“After leaving the society, he walked on the lanes and main roads of Udhna. As the incident took place at night, we were not able to see his face on many CCTVs. However, we traced him from his walking pattern. He also had a pattern of keeping his left hand intact as if he was a disabled person. However, he was normal. He took auto-rickshaws a couple of times and got down from the vehicles to misguide police. However, our teams finally traced him to Un village,” said inspector S N Desai of Udhna police station.
Jabbatar worked as a labourer and made thick thread used in making beds. Police invoked Sections 74, 75 of BNS and Sections 7, 8, 11, and 12 of POCSO against him.
