Molestation footage leads to 12 suspects

The Banaswadi police on Wednesday picked up 12 suspects in connection with the molestation of a woman in Kammanahalli.

The CCTV footage, found during the victim’s desperate search for evidence, is helping the police track the sequence of events.

The woman alighted from an auto and entered 5th Main, 7th Cross, at 2.40 am on January 1. As she started walking towards her house, two men on a scooter rode past her, and then took a U-turn and came back. The rider got down on the pretext of greeting her, and started molesting her.

He kissed and groped her and dragged her towards the bike. The pillion rider then molested her. When she raised an alarm, the men pushed her to the ground and fled.

The terrified woman started walking towards her house. Four men on two bikes watched the incident from the main road. The auto driver drove away as soon as he noticed her being molested.

Chance clues
In the afternoon, on January 1, the victim and a couple of her friends went to the spot looking for clues. They found a CCTV camera on a two-storey building and approached the owner. He agreed to show them the footage, and was shocked to see what had happened. He then offered her the footage.

He also informed his son-in-law Prashanth Francis, who knew Srinivas T, inspector at the Hennur police station. Francis told Srinivas about the footage on Tuesday.

Srinivas saw the video and contacted the Banaswadi police, under whom the area falls. He also gave a written statement. “We then registered a suo motu case,” said a senior police officer.

“While examining the footage, we found six people on three scooters following the auto. The suspects are all residents of Kammanahalli,” he explained.

Mobile network
The police picked up the suspects on the basis of mobile network signals. “The scooter number is not clear in the footage. We can’t confirm any arrests at this stage. We are gathering and examining footage from various CCTV cameras,” the officer said.