The five arrested are residents of Chattarpur in Madhya Pradesh: Police (Representational)
Days after a 30-year-old woman and her friends were allegedly harassed by a group of men in southwest Delhi's Hauz Khas Village area, the police said on Thursday they have arrested five accused in the case.
The accused were identified as Dinesh Ram (34), a resident of Jhansi in UP; Ashish Shivhare (39), Vikas Shivhare (38), Naveen Shivhare (41) and Ankit Shivhare (29), all residents of Chattarpur in Madhya Pradesh, they said.
According to police, they got the phone numbers of the accused during investigation and called them to the national capital after informing that a complaint had been received against them.
Interrogation revealed that the accused were returning after visiting the Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu and Kashmir. Their train bound for Madhya Pradesh from Delhi was scheduled for departure at 4 am on July 19. Since they had time, the accused went to Hauz Khas Village, where the incident took place, a senior police officer said.
All the five accused are known to each other. They were not involved in any case previously. Two of them run their DJ business and two others are doing business of tent houses, police said.
The incident took place in southwest Delhi's Hauz Khas area on the intervening night July 18 and 19 when the victim along with her three friends -- all residents of Darjeeling in West Bengal -- were waiting for a cab outside a bar.
Three to four persons made lewd comments about them, according to the complaint lodged on July 21 at Safdarjung Enclave police station.
The complainant got annoyed, police had said, adding: she shouted at the men and made their video.
Later, their cab arrived and the women left the area. On the basis of the complaint, a case under section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was lodged.
The video made by the complainant was posted on social media, prompting Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) to issue a notice to police, asking them to register an FIR.
In the video, the women can be heard objecting to the indecent remarks, while the men can be seen apologising for the comments they had made before the woman started recording.