Mumbai Police detains accused in connection with Bollywood actor ‘molestation’ case

A case has been registered under Section 354 and POCSO Act as the actor is a minor, and the Maharashtra Police has recorded a statement of the teenager. She also claimed that the Vistara inflight staff did not come to her aid.

A Bollywood actor was travelling from Delhi to Mumbai on a Vistara flight when a passenger allegedly molested her. (Snapshot)

The passenger, accused of molesting a teenage Bollywood actor onboard a flight, was detained by the Mumbai Police on Sunday. The man, who is a businessman by profession, was seated behind the teenage actor and allegedly harassed her during the flight.

Mumbai Police has registered a formal complaint under POCSO as the actor recounted her ordeal in an Instagram ‘live’ after deboarding the flight at the Mumbai airport on Sunday. In a series of Instagram stories, she alleged that she was harassed by a male passenger who touched her back and neck with his foot.

The Bollywood actor took to Instagram and said, “I just landed, the whole irony of this that I yelled… and this is not done… this is not how you should be treated or made to feel… this is terrible. This is how they will take care of girls? No one will help us if we don’t decide to help ourselves and that is the worst thing.”

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A case has been registered under Section 354 and POCSO Act as the actor is a minor after the Maharashtra Police recorded a statement. She also claimed that the Vistara inflight staff did not come to her aid. Air Vistara, which submitted an initial report with the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has apologised to the actor and issued a clarification saying, “Crew only became aware of something amiss during the final descent when they were seated for landing.”

Support had been pouring for the young national award-winning actor since morning with senior politicians and celebrities demanding action in the case. J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, former CM Omar Abdullah, National Commission for Women, Maharashtra State Women Commission had all extended their support to the victim calling for fast action.

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