Mumbai Shocker: French Consulate Staffer Molested; Stalker Held After CCTV Hunt

In a shocking incident, a 27-year-old French national working with the French consulate in Mumbai was allegedly molested by a scooter-borne man on a Bandra West stretch. The incident unfolded after 12.25 am on November 8, as the woman was walking back to her residence after visiting a friend at Pali Hill, barely a kilometre away.

According to police, the accused, riding a scooter, was stalking her and moments later halted beside her, molested her, and fled away. The French consulate filed an official complaint on November 14, prompting a probe.

Stalker Held After CCTV Hunt

Investigators combed through more than 50 CCTV feeds from the area before zeroing in on the suspect — 25-year-old Sunil Waghela, a scrap dealer from Dharavi. The breakthrough came from the scooter’s registration plate, leading Khar police to arrest him from his home barely 100 metres from Dharavi police station on Saturday night.

Police are now probing whether the accused had been monitoring the woman and what brought him to Bandra, "A few CCTV footage retrieved from the spot were overwritten, but we managed to retrieve footage of Waghela following the woman on a scooter. He stopped next to her and then sped away after molesting her," an officer from Khar police station said. "It is suspected he had been stalking her for a few days."

An FIR under BNS Section 74 — assault or criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty was registered after coordination between the embassy and the police.

"Waghela was caught late on Saturday after tracking his movement using technical assistance. When he was being taken away, his family members, relatives and people from his community created a ruckus before they were cleared by the police team," an officer said.

Waghela was produced before the Bandra holiday court on Sunday, which remanded him to police custody till Monday as the investigation progresses.