Pernem (Goa)

A 44-year-old motorcycle pilot has been arrested for allegedly molesting an American tourist in the tourist-popular coastal village in Morjim. A photo of the accused uploaded by the victim on her Facebook page helped the local police trace the accused’s whereabouts and arrest him.

Isidor Fernandes has been taken into custody under sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman to outrage her modesty) and 354-A (sexual harassment) of the IPC.

The victim, who was holidaying in the coastal state during the long weekend reached out to people through her Facebook account alleging how the bike rider (who was until then not identified) showed up his hospitable side only to molest her taking opportunity of dark lanes.

“I initially hired the man to drop at a restaurant where I planned on eating dinner. However, I then decided on getting him to drop at my hotel in Morjim after finding the man to be a friendly person. On the way to the hotel things took a turn for the worse when the man started taking turns into lanes that weren’t along the route to her hotel. He defended himself saying he was taking a shortcut to the hotel, but it had already been 40 minutes that they had been riding with her hotel nowhere in sight,” the woman writes in her Facebook post, which was also tagged to Goa Tourism.

To her shock, the man pulled her hands towards him in an offensive gesture. “ I got off the bike, threw a Rs 500 note at him and ran to a busy main road before he lost me,” she said. The local police took quick cognizance of the matter by initaitng an inquiry while simultaneously contacted her though her Facebook account, rquesting to lodge a complaint. “She sent her complaint by mail and we soon registered an offense. He is now arrested,” North SP Chandana Chhaudhary said.

 TEAM TNV