Civic official arrested for molestation

The city police arrested Ashok Digambar Ghorpade (41),an assistant garden superintendent at the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC),for allegedly molesting a 30-year-old woman from Bibvewadi. Ghorpade was granted bail by a court on Saturday.

Police said the complainant claimed to be a garden developer. According to her statement,she knows Ghorpade since the past two-and-a-half years and was introduced to him when she went to the PMC garden department office for submitting an application for cutting branches of trees in the society where she stays.

She stated in her complaint that Ghorpade asked her to meet him at a hotel,said police. When she reached there,Ghorpade allegedly molested her and his friend Balasaheb Dolas allegedly clicked their photographs on a mobile phone. The complainant alleged that Ghorpade,who had visited her home a few times and on November 5,he again allegedly molested her in the parking lot of her building. Police officer BN Rathod said Ghorpade was arrested under section 354 of the Indian Penal Code.