NRI man masturbates sitting beside Indian woman on board a flight from Istanbul, arrested

A NRI man, who allegedly masturbated sitting beside an Indian woman on board a flight from Istanbul, has been booked under Section 509 of the IPC.

Representational image (Pic courtesy: pixabay.com)

New Delhi:  A 58-year-old NRI, holding a Russian passport, was arrested at the Delhi airport on Sunday after an Indian woman alleged that he had masturbated sitting beside her on board a flight from Istanbul. The security control room at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport was informed in the early hours that there was an "unruly passenger" on board a Turkish airline flight approaching Delhi.

Personnel of the CISF, which guards the airport, reached the flight (TK-716) upon landing and were informed that the Indian woman had, in the meantime, made a distress call to the Delhi Police alleging sexual harassment by a co-passenger.

"It was learnt that the male passenger, a Russian, was sitting next to the woman in the flight and allegedly unzipped his trousers and started masturbating in front of her," a senior official was quoted as saying by PTI. When the woman complained to the cabin crew, the male passenger was shifted to another seat, he said. The man was later handed over to the Delhi Police, which also reached the Terminal-III area of the airport. He has been booked under Section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC, police said. 

Earlier, in May 2018, a man in Kolkata was arrested after he had allegedly masturbated in a bus while ogling at two women. The women had recorded the incident and posted it on social media. "The man, a hawker by profession, was arrested from Shyampukur police station area in the city," Kolkata police had posted on its Facebook page. The post had a photograph of the accused, who they had claimed hailed from Baidyabati in Hooghly district. 

The video showed an elderly man making vulgar gestures inside a bus. Police were alerted after one of the two women posted two videos on her Facebook page and also on the page of the Kolkata Police. "When we protested and asked the bus conductor to take action, he ignored our pleas," the victim had said on her Facebook post.

Before that, in a spate of such incidents, a cab driver was arrested in April 2018 and sent to judicial custody after a lady passenger had accused him of masturbating while driving the vehicle. News agency ANI had reported that the incident had taken place on April 15. In her complaint to the police, the lady passenger had said that soon after she got into a cab, the driver had begun masturbating in front of her while still negotiating traffic outside. The lady then reportedly asked him to stop the car and later filed a complaint.

(With Agency inputs)