Auto driver masturbates while plying college student, arrested

This picture has been used for representational purposes

The police arrested a 49-year-old autorickshaw driver on Monday for masturbating while ferrying a college student on Saturday. The student posted a video of the crime on her Instagram account that was also shared by Mumbai Police and the office of the Commissioner of Police on Twitter, Indian Express reported.

The incident happened on Saturday at around 7.30am when the girl hailed an autorickshaw from her home to go to her college. According to her Instagram post, the driver of the autorickshaw, identified as Ashok Kharvi, strated masturbating a minute into the ride and was staring at her through the rear-view mirror while driving the vehicle.

She wrote in the post, "At first, I didn't realise it, but within one minute I knew what he was doing. At one point, I literally had to cover myself with my bag." According to the police, when the student asked Kharvi to stop the vehicle, he insisted on dropping her to her college.

The student, mentioning the registration number of the auto-rickshaw, wrote in her post, "I'd like to say that in my college, students are not allowed to wear ripped (torn) jeans. So I don't think there was any point of inappropriate clothing or anything. I wasn't roaming late at night, it was 7.30 in the morning."

An Instagram user shared the screenshot of her post on Sunday and tagged Mumbai police on Twitter. The police then reached out to the student and recorded her statement after which a case was registered at the Goregaon police station and Kharvi was arrested.

The Mumbai Police shared the post by the person who shared the screenshots on Twitter, saying, "A tweet is all it took for Goregaon police to swing into action."

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