Two youths molest, attack woman and her sister

Two men molested a woman while she was on her way to work in Bhiwandi on Monday morning, then mercilessly beat up her sister who tried to protect her as they were returning home from the market in the evening.

The two men, Nilkanth Ganpat Rathod, 28, and Shankar Gurunath Chavan, 32, have been arrested by the Narpoli police on the charge of assaulting or using criminal force with intent to outrage the modesty of a woman. They were produced in court and remanded in judicial custody.

According to the complaint of the woman, 25, she was walking through the Anjur Phata neighbourhood when one of the men accosted her and dragged her to the side of the road. The woman cried out for help, which drew the attention of some passersby and the molesters fled.

In the evening, the woman was returning from the market along with her elder sister when she spotted the two men at Dhamankar Naka. The men stepped up to them and one of them offered some money.

The sister responded by slapping one of the men. Immediately they pounced on her and beat her up. No one passing by bothered to intervene even as the woman fainted. The woman took her sister to a private clinic nearby.

"Nobody helped us even after my sister fell unconscious, I don't know the men but some shopkeepers said they recognized them," the woman said.