(Image source from: Metro US)

A 38-year-old American journalist of Indian origin was on Friday night allegedly hounded, harassed, heckled, and molested by a man driving a Dzire in Ghaziabad of Uttar Pradesh.

The man, identified by police as 31-year-old Nishant Kaushik, allegedly followed her in his car for around 50 minutes, making obscene remarks throughout. At one point, he allegedly even asked her, ‘Chalti hai kya nau se baarah?’ (which roughly translates to, ‘do you want to come with me…’)

Nishant, who turned out to be a resident of the same housing society where the journalist had rented a flat, was arrested later that night after she filed a police complaint.

The woman said the episode had left her so shaken and terrified that she had decided to return to the United States. She and her sister, who is also a journalist, had come to India in January and rented a flat in Indirapuram of Ghaziabad as they wanted to cover the general elections.

Police said Nishant works for a private firm in Noida. “The incident happened around 10 p.m. on Friday. The accused followed her in his car for some time and passed comments. He molested her as well. We have arrested him,” said a police officer.

Nishant allegedly began following the woman in his car when she was on her way to a grocery store, the woman’s sister said. She ignored him and boarded a cycle rickshaw as she had to visit a few more stores on a street near Suncity but Nishant kept following her.

“I visited three shops in the locality and the man followed me in his Swift Dzire. This went on for nearly 50 minutes. He even tried to stop the rickshaw a few times. When I encountered him, he touched me inappropriately,” the woman said in her complaint.

She called the guards when she was near her housing society’s gates and called her sister for help. “I rushed to the gate and called the police control room. The accused was drunk and misbehaved with us when we tried to resist. He tried to flee, but the guards caught hold of him and handed him over to police,” the sister said.

“Based on the woman’s complaint, an FIR under sections 354 D (assault or criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC has been registered at Indirapuram police station. The accused has been arrested and sent to jail while his car has been seized by the police,” said police.

The woman was a freelance journalist who wrote for foreign publications.

By Sowmya Sangam