Molestation: 14 get bail

Fourteen men who were arrested for molesting two women on January 1 outside a hotel in Juhu...

Fourteen men who were arrested for molesting two women on January 1 outside a hotel in Juhu were on Friday produced in a magistrate8217;s court in Andheri, where they were granted bail on a surety of Rs 10,000 each. Since the accused were yet to get copies of the bail order, they will furnish the surety amount on Saturday, said lawyers. Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil said the state would appeal against the bail in the High Court.

Those arrested are Kunal Jadhav 20, Amit Kapoor 26, Sebastian D8217;Silva 18, Swapnil Mandhre 21, Sandeep Panchal 23, Manoj Panchal 21, Vaibhav Marathe 19, Nilesh Bhagyatkar 19, Derek Jadhav 19, Siddharth Singh 19, Sudhir Naikwade 21 Ajay Marathe 18, Ravindra Shukla 27 and Sandeep Shukla 19.

While Ravindra Shukla runs a sandwich stall at Vile Parle and is a resident of Kandivli, his cousin Sandeep Shukla lives in Vile Parle East. The remaining 12 are residents of Siddhivinayak Society on Shraddhanand Road in Vile Parle East.

Announcing the arrests, Joint Commissioner of Police Law and Order K L Prasad had earlier said that one of the 14 had surrendered himself. However, at the Andheri magistrate8217;s court on Friday, even as the youngsters were first remanded to judicial custody and then applied for bail, the families of the 12 who belong to Siddhivinayak Society claimed that they had surrendered of their own accord.

Manohar Jadhav, the father of Derek Jadhav, said: 8220;These kids had been enjoying their New Year Eve on the terrace of Siddhivinayak Society. Later, they went to Juhu beach to watch the celebrations and while returning, they saw a mob near Marriot.8221;

According to Jadhav, four of them rushed forward to check what the commotion was about and two of them, Nilesh Bhagyatkar and Sudhir Naikwade, were captured in photographs shot by two journalists at the spot.

At about 1.45 am on January 1, two couples leaving the J W Marriott were caught in an unruly mob of men. The two women were molested for close to 10 minutes until the photographers at the spot alerted a passing traffic police van. After waiting over 24 hours to register a case, the police finally launched a hunt for the culprits, announcing a reward for information on those in the photographs.

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The 14 arrested late Thursday have been charged under Sections 143, 147, 148, 149, 323, 354, 341, 504 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 135 of the Bombay Police Act. Deputy Commissioner of Police K M Prasanna said, 8220;More arrests will be made in the case.8221;

Defence lawyer Nagesh Joshi, who appeared for the 14 accused, said the prosecution could not satisfy the court on why they needed police custody. 8220;The court felt that there was no need for arguing the case at this stage,8221; he added.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief minister R R Patil on Friday said the state would urge the Centre to make Section 354 of the IPC non-bailable.