Man arrested after alleged molestation at Kolkata hotel

Police in Kolkata arrested a 56-year-old man after two women from Nagaland alleged that they were molested in the lobby of a hotel where the Brazilian football team had been staying. The incident reportedly occurred between 12:30 a.m. and 1 a.m.

on Sunday, after Brazil’s friendly match against India in Kolkata. The women, from Dimapur, were in the lobby of the JW Marriott hotel in the city’s EM Bypass area and were cheering for the Brazilian team as it departed. According to police, the victims filed a first information report at Pragati Maidan police station on Sunday morning.

They alleged that unknown men had touched them inappropriately, an act the police described as outraging a woman’s modesty. Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Kunal Aggarwal said officers examined CCTV footage from the hotel lobby during their investigation. Police later arrested Palash Ray, a resident of Noida in Uttar Pradesh, from one of the hotel rooms in which he had been staying.

The case was registered under Section 74 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which concerns outraging a woman’s modesty through criminal force. The Brazilian team had been lodged at the five-star hotel for two days during its visit to Kolkata. The friendly match, organised by the All India Football Federation, took place at Salt Lake’s Yuva Bharati Stadium on Saturday evening.

The arrest came about a week after another man was arrested at the same hotel’s discotheque on September 27 for allegedly sexually harassing a woman. The supplied material does not state whether the accused had been charged in court, whether he had legal representation or whether the hotel issued a public response. The allegations remain subject to the legal process.