Two sisters in their 20s have alleged that they were stalked, harassed and threatened by a group of men travelling in an SUV, one of whom allegedly brandished a gun at them, near Noida’s Sector 52 in the early hours of Wednesday.
Police said on Thursday that they had registered a case of sexual harassment and criminal intimidation at Sector 24 police station against unidentified suspects and formed a team to trace them.
The incident took place around 12.55am on Wednesday when the sisters were riding a scooter towards Sector 59 from the Sector 52 Metro station side. According to the 25-year-old woman, who works at a private company, she and her sister were shifting homes from Noida’s Sector 73 to Ghaziabad’s Khoda on Tuesday night, along with their family members, who were Maruti Suzuki Swift with luggage.
“When my sister and I were moving towards Sector 59 from the Sector 52 Metro station side on a scooter, unidentified men in an SUV (Mahindra Thar) started stalking us and moving parallel to our scooter,” she said. Her sister, in her 30s, was riding pillion.
“There were four people inside the SUV. Their behaviour frightened us, and I started driving fast to flee from them. But the SUV kept tailing us, and the person sitting in the front passenger seat brandished a gun at us while saying, ‘Want me to kill you? (maar du kya?),’” she alleged.
The woman said the men also passed comments at them and left only after the sisters started shouting.
“Our parents were moving in a car a few metres from us. My sister attempted to scream to alert them, but they failed to notice us. We were so terrified that we failed to note down the registration number of the SUV,” she said.
The sisters subsequently told their parents about the incident and dialled 112 for police assistance. Police took the family to the spot for verification and received their written complaint on Wednesday morning.
“It was a nightmare for us. After yesterday’s incident, we are afraid to step out at night. I have never experienced anything like that before,” the woman said.
Police said they scanned more than 70 CCTV cameras in the area till Thursday evening. A black Thar was spotted leaving the area around 12.53am towards Sector 62 Metro station, they said.
A police officer, requesting anonymity, said the CCTV footage showed the sisters’ parents stopping at Sector 51 Metro station after the sisters went out of view. “After waiting for a minute, their parents started moving behind their scooter, when the sisters caught up. The police control room received a call around 1.37am, half an hour after the incident. We are piecing all the evidence together to verify the allegations and nab the suspects,” the officer said.
The officer added that the vehicle’s registration number could not be identified from the CCTV footage due to darkness.
“We have registered a case, and a team has been formed to trace the suspects with the help of the registration number of the vehicle,” said Mayank Tiwari, assistant commissioner of police, Noida.