One of the two boxers from Haryana was arrested for allegedly passing lewd comments at a 26-year-old model mistaking her to be a "call girl", police said on Monday.
The victim strongly opposed the two men, identified as Dinesh Yadav and Amit Yadav, after which they boarded an auto-rickshaw, but the woman continued to follow the vehicle and managed to get one of the boxers arrested, police said.
The incident took place on Thursday night around 10.30 pm when the model, who had earlier won the title of 'North India Teen Queen', was speaking on phone at Bandstand in suburban Bandra.
At that time, two youths allegedly flanked her and started misbehaving with her by offering night rates, a police officer said.
"After finishing my jogging, I was talking to my relatives while sitting on a bench, when one guy approached me asking if I needed any help. Though I did not pay any attention to him, he continued to pester me," the model, who has worked in music videos and an ad-film made for the Uttar Pradesh government, told PTI.
Recalling the incident, she said, "A few minutes later, another person came and sat besides me and came closer which frightened me. He then asked me how much I would charge to join them for the night."
"Sensing something amiss, I just got up and began yelling at them and also threatened to file a complaint with the police, to which they retorted saying do whatever you want, we are not afraid," she said.
"I got scared and screamed for help from 10-15 onlookers, but nobody responded," the woman said.
The model said that after she kept on screaming, the two men started walking away and sat in an auto-rickshaw.
"I also gathered courage and chased them in another autorickshaw. I alerted the policemen present on the 'nakabandi' about the two men," she said.
Bandra police station's senior inspector Ramchandra Dhavle said after a brief chase, the police managed to nab the two men, both boxers from Haryana, police said.
While Dinesh was arrested the same night, Amit managed to escape from the police station.
The accused have been booked under sections 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC.
Dinesh was later produced in court and granted bail.
"We are conducting a thorough inquiry and on the basis of information provided by Dinesh, we are hopeful of nabbing Amit," Dhavle said.
Image: Purnima Behl showed courage and got one of her harassers arrested. Photograph: Facebook
