A 23-year-old man who had spit on a woman from Manipur was arrested on Friday, in Kalina area of Mumbai on April 6. The accused, Amir Mohammed Elias, is a Kurla resident, the Mumbai police said. According to the reports, the incident came to light when a friend of the victim had posted about the appaling incident on social media. The friend of the victim went by the name Linda Newami and had flagged the incident of the Manipur woman being spit on by a man on a bike, now identified as Amir Mohammad Elias.
This is not done! WE HAVE TO FIGHT #COVID19 OR THIS RACIAL ATTACKS? I request the @MumbaiPolice police to immediately take actions please!
— Linda Newmai (@lindanewmai) April 6, 2020
A NE girl from Manipur is the new victim again here in Mumbai. This happened just an hour ago. A biker came &spat on her.#StopRacism pic.twitter.com/sVIHuhR2Gh
The incident had occurred on April 6 afternoon when the 25-year-old victim along with her friend had walked from Geeta Vihar Junction towards the Military Camp in Kalina to collect the essential goods that were distributed by the police.
Elias ran away after spitting on victim from Manipur
The accused Amir Mohammed Elias, who is a delivery boy, approached towards them on a bike, took off his mask and spat on her near Kalina signal. The victim lodged a complaint at Vakola police station.
In her complaint, the victim said, “The biker came closer to me and removed his mask and spat on me before he sped on his bike. The biker’s act could expose me to coronavirus infection. I failed to note down the bike’s registration number as I was left in a shock.”
Over 100 CCTVs scanned to nab the accused: Mumbai Police
The police soon began to trace the accused Elias. They scanned over 100 closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage before tracking Elias’s address. The Mumbai police used an app to fix the blurred image of the vehicle registration number of the bike that he used to speed away after committing the offence.
The Vakola police team scanned through several CCTVs and also they scanned through the dump data of at least 1.5 lakh mobile users who were in the area on the day of the incident.
“The investigation team used an app to fix the blur pixel of the vehicle registration number and used dump data of phone users. Depending upon the activities of the phone users, the police zeroed in on the accused late on Thursday. The technical analysis helped in tracking the accused,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone VIII) Manjunath Singe.
However, the police said that Elias claimed that he has got the habit of chewing pan leaves and his act was not intentional.
The Vakola police have now registered a case under the Indian Penal Code sections 270 (Malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and 352 (Punishment for assault or criminal force otherwise than on grave provocation) against Elias.
In a similar incident last week, a group of 4-5 women in the town of Rajasthan’s Kota, were seen spitting in polythenes bags and throwing them inside houses amidst coronavirus scare leaving people with a sense of fear and panic as cases of Chinese epidemic is on a rise in the country.
