In an incident causing dismay, a 29-year-old man was arrested for stalking and assaulting a television actor and her Non-Resident Indian (NRI) friend at Charni Road railway station.
The arrested accused identified as Shahrukh Shaikh, 29, is the resident of Mariyappa Nagar, Worli. Shaikh claims that he works with a well known night club in south Mumbai.
The actor, Harshita Kashyap (26) is a former Splitsvilla 8 contestant, who is now working for an upcoming web series and is a resident of Four Bungalows in Andheri.
While speaking to an media portal, Kashyap said, “My friend Ish Pala, 27 who is an NRI and stays in South Africa, works in medical tourism. On December 2, she invited me to come with her to Saifee hospital at Charni road. So we decided to go by train as the hospital is just across the road from the station.”
She added, “As it was afternoon, the train was partially empty. After she finished her work in the hospital, at around 3:30 pm we reached the station to return home. Pala was standing in the queue to purchase a train ticket when I noticed that someone was staring at us, initially, we ignored but he was constantly stalking us.”
While Kashyap and Pala were ascending the stairs they noticed that they were still being stalked. Kashyap confronted him, saying “why you are looking fixedly at me”. Rather than stopping the stalker arrogantly replied, “If I am staring at you than what is the problem.”
The actor and her friend decided to ignore him and continued walking. When they were on the foot over-bridge they noticed that Shaikh was still following them hence they stopped and questioned him again, “Why you are following us?”
This time the accused became physical. “He first slapped Pala which shook her. I go to the gym daily and as I am fit I decided to teach him a lesson and started hitting him. Shaikh retaliated and he even started hitting me. The office goers and co-passengers intervened meanwhile the police personal arrived and took us to the GRP chowki on the platform,” added Kashyap.
“When we were in the police station to file an FIR against him he started crying and even his sister requested me not to file a case as their financial conditions were not good. But I thought if we will not teach a lesson to such people they might repeat such acts and be dangerous for other females in the future,” she added.
The police have registered an offense against the accused under sections 354 (a), 354 (b) and 323 of Indian Penal Code and arrested him.
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