Man held for molesting woman, had targeted many

Following a complaint he was traced and arrested from Diva in Thane district. The police said Khaire has several cases of cheating, molestation and impersonation lodged against him.

Police officials said Khaire stays with his family in Sion Kol-iwada. At around 3 pm on August 2, the accused on a bike approached the 30-year-old woman who was walking towards her father’s home in Bandra (east). “He sweet talked her into believing he was her husband’s friend and told her that he was heading in the same direction and would drop her,” an investigator said.

During the bike ride, Khaire offered to help her get a job and asked for her number, the police said. “When the woman said her phone was not working, Khaire said he could fix it and stopped the bike near a residential building,” said an officer.

After Khaire went inside the building, the woman sensed something amiss about the stranger and followed him to get her phone back. However, on the steps inside the building, when she asked for her phone, the accused sexually molested her. An officer said, “When he started removing her clothes, she raised an alarm and shouted for help, whereupon the accused fled the spot.”

Police said that the woman reported the incident to her family and lodged a case at Nirmal Nagar police station. The accused was booked under sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 406 (criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code.

Upon investigation, officers found that he was also wanted by Navghar police in Mulund in a cheating case, wherein he had duped a person of gold ornaments. On checking CCTV footage of the spot, an officer said that they saw him trying the same act on another woman on August 1, but could not succeed as her son came upon them from behind. “We learnt that he had targeted 8 to 10 women up till Ghatkopar area,” said an officer.

“He earlier worked as a rickshaw driver and took to crime a few years ago,” an officer said. Khaire was produced before court and remanded in police custody.