Four FIRs filed in Bengaluru molestation cases

Three are based on media reports and the fourth on a post on Facebook.

January 05, 2017 10:04 pm | Updated January 06, 2017 01:24 pm IST - Bengaluru:

A policeman tries to control the crowd on Brigade Road, Bengaluru, on New Year’s eve.

A policeman tries to control the crowd on Brigade Road, Bengaluru, on New Year’s eve.

Even as investigation into molestations on M.G. Road and Brigade Road in Bengaluru on New Year eve is on, the police have filed four First Information Reports (FIRs) against unknown persons.

“We have taken the media reports as the gospel truth and registered cases,” Police Commissioner Praveen Sood said on Thursday. Though examination of CCTV footage yielded no evidence of sexual assault, the police would send notices to media houses seeking more details.

Mr. Sood said that 1,400 police personnel were posted in the area, which had over 40 CCTV cameras. Apart from this, there were media personnel and their camera crews. Yet no one had come across any such incident.

"Even the next day, when members of the media interacted with me on my first day as commissioner, no mention about such an incident was made nor did anyone bring it to the notice of the police," he said.

However, the next day, a section of the media carried a report about women being molested and these included first person accounts. “But despite repeated appeals, neither the victims nor mediapersons came forward to help us probe these allegations, because of which we have decided to issue notices to help us deliver justice to the victims,” he said.

So far, two cases have been registered in the Cubbon Park police station, based on first person accounts published in an English daily about alleged molestations and interviews of victims by a few television channels.

A third suo motu case was registered in the Ashok Nagar police station on the basis of a report by an English daily on Thursday about an event organiser and a presenter witnessing at least two women getting groped and molested on Brigade Road.

The fourth case was registered in the Indiranagar police station based on a post on Facebook by a female photographer, who claimed to have been a victim of groping and molestation on New Year's eve in Indiranagar.

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