Woman, 55, molested in moving auto, thrown out after she resists advances; Accused held after encounter

Lucknow: A 55-year-old woman, owner of a stationery store, was allegedly molested and thrashed by an autorickshaw driver and his aide and pushed out of a moving vehicle after she resisted their advances in the Ghazipur (Indiranagar) area, police said.

The main accused was later arrested after being injured in a police encounter.

The incident occurred on Saturday evening when the woman boarded an auto from Engineering Chauraha for her home in Gomti Nagar via app.

During the journey, driver Sunny Kashyap, 28, and his associate allegedly began sexually harassing her inside the moving vehicle.

Police said when the woman resisted and raised an alarm, the accused assaulted her and attempted to silence her by throttling her.

When she continued to fight back, the duo allegedly pushed her out of the moving auto near the CNS Hospital stretch on Ring Road in Sector 25 and fled.

Despite injuries, the woman survived. Her family later approached police, following which a case was registered. Taking swift action, police formed special teams to identify and track the accused.

DCP (East Zone) Deeksha Sharma said one accused, Sumit Kashyap, 19, was arrested on June 7, while raids continued for Sunny. Acting on inputs, a joint team of Ghazipur police and the East Zone Crime Branch located Sunny in the early hours of Monday.

“During the arrest attempt, he opened fire on the police team. Police retaliated in self-defence, injuring him in the leg,” Sharma said. He was later taken into custody and admitted to hospital. An illegal firearm and cartridges were recovered from him.

Police records show Sunny has a prior criminal case registered in Sitapur under serious charges.