Jun 27, 2025 07:14 AM IST
MUMBAI: An Uber driver, 23, denied bail for allegedly molesting a 14-year-old girl during a ride. Investigation ongoing, court cites strong evidence against him.
MUMBAI: A 23-year-old Uber driver has been refused bail after he was arrested for allegedly harassing and molesting a 14-year-old girl while taking her from Dadar to her residence in Powai. The sessions court on June 25, said that the investigation was still ongoing and so far the facts seemed to say that the accused had committed the crime.
The girl was returning home in May from a summer camp in Dadar when the accused, Shreyansh Pandey, allegedly kept staring at her. According to the police, he took a different route instead of the regular one to her house and tried touching her on the pretext of seeing her phone. He also played loud music in the cab, kept asking her if she wanted a cigarette, and even stopped at an isolated place claiming that the vehicle had broken down.
The police said that the minor called her father from the car and he asked the driver where he was taking. Pandey had allegedly taken two wrong turns at Powai instead of a turn in Kandivali, but after her father’s call, the accused dropped her off a little farther from her house and fled.
Following a complaint by the girl and her parents, the Dadar police arrested Pandey and booked him for sexual harassment under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Pandey’s advocate, during his bail plea, argued that the preliminary investigation was complete, and added that he was falsely implicated in the case and that the investigating officer had not collected any CCTV footage which proved the accused had taken the wrong route.
The court said that along with playing loud music, the accused had tried to snatch away the victim’s phone while she was talking to her father. Special sessions judge PN Rao refused to accept that the accused had been ‘falsely implicated’ and did not grant him bail saying that the investigation was still ongoing.
