‘The victims have departed for US’

“They were familiar with the streets of Mumbai and its men - even the hooligans. They never imagined they would be subjected to this kind of a nightmare,” Sunil Patel, a relative of the victims, told DNA.

Two couples, one of whom had tied the knot on December 28 at Surat, returned to the US, wanting to leave behind the nightmare; perhaps scarred for life.

The victims, who came to India on December 17, packed their bags, flew to Delhi and boarded a flight to the US on Thursday afternoon.

“I would not feel safe in Mumbai anymore. I would never go out partying again in Mumbai, or anywhere in India,” the husband of one of the victims told a television channel. The California-based NRIs have a chain of restaurants and bars across the US, said relatives.

“They visited Mumbai regularly. Even last year, they had been partying at JW Marriott on New Year’s Eve. They always thought Mumbai was a safe city.

The incident changed their perception forever,” said Sunil. He felt that things could have gone worse had it not been for the intervention by the two press photographers and the cops. “Police dispersed the rampaging mob and took my cousins to safety.”

Justifying their stand not to lodge a police complaint, the victim’s husband told a news agency that they could not have identified any of the molesters as “it happened too fast”.

“Neither police nor JW Marriott hotel should be blamed. I have been coming to Mumbai for the past five years, but this experience changed my perception forever,” he told the agency.