Predatory Behavior: Social Media Posts Reveal Years Of Harassment Faced By Mumbai’s Mithibai And NMIMS University Students

Predatory Behavior: Social Media Posts Reveal Years Of Harassment Faced By Mumbai’s Mithibai And NMIMS University Students | Representative picture

Mumbai: Even as the country remains enraged by the brutal rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata and the sexual assault of two four-year-old kindergarten kids in Badlapur, students at two prominent colleges in the city are coming out to describe an ordeal of their own.

Anonymous accounts posted on social media revealed that, for many years, students at Mithibai College and NMIMS University in Vila Parle have been facing harassment outside their campus. The posts, purportedly by women at the two institutes, described instances of inappropriate touching, groping, flashing and even masturbating by an unknown man lurking on the streets near their institutes. These stories were corroborated by several current and former students who spoke to The Free Press Journal.

Infamous among the students as the ‘yellow shirt guy’, the students often find him walking on the skywalk and the footpath leading towards the eastern side of Vile Parle station. He would deliberately bump into women coming from the opposite side and try to grope and touch them. Some of the students saw him waiting for the street to get crowded before going about his harassing ways so as to give an impression of accidental contact.

Sakshi Sonkhiya, a former student at Mithibai College, recounted how she was harassed back in 2018. “The first time it happened to me, I did not notice because the street is usually very crowded so I thought he touched me by mistake. I ignored it the second time as well but I could see that he was the same man who touched me the first time. But after returning from college the same day he grabbed my buttocks for a third time. And the next thing that I saw was even more traumatising – he had crossed the footpath just opposite the college and it looked like he was masturbating,” she said.

Sonkhiya was also a witness to another incident that involved a junior college student. “I was walking on the same street one night when I heard a scream and when I enquired the girl, she told me that the same man flashed his private parts to her and ran away,” Sonkhiya said, recounting that the man was arrested for after the incident but nothing changed even after that.

Another former student said that the man is often found wearing yellow. She said that Mithibai College in 2022 had even issued a circular warning students about the man. “Beware of this man. He has been reportedly molesting college students. He can be frequently seen on the skywalk around 6-7am,” she remembers the circular as reading.

A similar incident happened with Saloni who studied at Mithibai College from between 2010 and 2015. “I don’t recall the exact year, but I remember walking to the Vile Parle station and thought this guy was walking behind me. I didn’t make much of it because many people walked to the station. Then I got into the ladies’ compartment, and when I looked out, I saw this guy on the platform touching himself. For a moment, I was confused, and so I stared at him, trying to understand what was happening. The next thing I know, he took out his penis. I was disgusted, and then the local train started moving,” she said, adding that she never saw him again, but could recollect his face seeing the picture going viral.

A current student said that the alleged perpetrator has been arrested on multiple occasions, but continues harassing students. “He stays in jail for up to three months and then he is released. He then continues with what he has been doing for years now because he gets to have food and shelter in jail,” she said.

The FPJ couldn’t confirm this information with the police sources, who maintain that they haven’t received any complaint from the students. The FPJ also reached out to the college authorities regarding the matter who said that they have currently deployed security outside the college.

“The incidents happen outside the college gates but we have deployed security for the safety of the students. The management has also recently complained to the Police but eventually, the government and the police have to take some action. We have also filed complaints against the man several times before,” said the official, who wishes not to be named.

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