Ten minutes marred his reputation

Molestation attempt by an employee of a leading software company jolts French couple

It was on Friday afternoon that he and his wife Jane, both French nationals, went through a ten minute ordeal when a stranger entered their house and tried molesting Jane.

According to Robert, the incident took place when Jane returned to her house in Vijaynagar III stage. The area with sparse population and lots of open spaces is predominantly inhabited by foreign nationals and students.

Stranger on a bike

“Jane returned at around 3.30 pm and was opening the lock of the house when she noticed this man, standing almost in front of our house. After a few minutes when she saw him sitting on his parked bike, Jane asked why he was standing there,” Robert said.
The stranger replied he was looking for someone’s house and mentioned a name. Jane said she did not know anyone by that name, when the stranger interrupted again and asked for the name of Jane’s landlord. Jane mentioned the name and turned to go into the house when he asked for water.

“She didn’t think it strange for someone to ask for water since it is a practice here in India,” Robert said.

As Jane went into kitchen to fetch water, the stranger jumped the compound wall and entered the house.

“When my wife turned with a glass of water, he was right there, staring at her face. He tried grabbing her and overpowered her at times. She raised an alarm which alerted the neighbours,” Robert said.

The stranger was later identified as Krishna Moorthy, an Infosys employee for last five years and resident of VV Mohalla. As neighbours rushed to help on hearing Jane’s screams, the intruder, in his attempt to flee, rammed his bike into a car parked nearby.
He was caught by the public and handed over to police who arrived at the scene. The couple lodged a complaint soon after.

Released on bail

Krishna Moorthy refuted the allegations initially and confessed later. According to PSI Arun Nagegowda, the engineer was let off on bail, on a bond of Rs 3,000 furnished by his wife Madhumati.

For Robert and Jane, the incident is certainly ‘bad’ but, is not about their whole experience in India.

“We will not generalise or return to our countries in a hurry. We will not forgive that man, and we want justice. We were simply overwhelmed by the support of our neighbours and this will help us to return to normalcy,” Robert said.