Cops want Juhu victims to aid probe

AHMEDABAD: Will the two NRI women from Gujarat, who were molested by a mob outside the J W Marriott in Mumbai during the New Year celebrations, identify their tormentors for the police?
The police want them to take part in an identification parade, but the families do not want them to get involved in any legal battles, which would require them to return to India frequently.They were keen that the women catch the first flight back to California.
The two couples are believed to have booked their return tickets to California for January 10, but senior officials of the Mumbai police however were trying to convince them to return to Mumbai just once to identify the culprits, even if informally.
The women have spoken to Mumbai ACP Archana Tyagi asking her to ensure that television crew stay away from them if they returned to Mumbai. They did not want their identities to be revealed. The cops however were not sure if the girls, who were extremely scared, would agree to an identification parade.
After the incident in Mumbai, the couples had fled to Phadvel in Navsari, home of Hiten Patel, who had recently married one of the two girls. But they left after television crew descended on the village.
In his initial reaction to the incident, Jayesh Patel, Hiten’s father, had insisted that the couples flee the country at the earliest without getting into legal problems, but he wasn’t answering his phone on Friday and wasn’t spotted at home in Phadvel.
Phadvel, a small village of Chikhli taluka of Navsari, had worn a festive look on December 30 to celebrate the wedding of Hiten. Later, the married couple and some relatives had left for Mumbai in a hired mini-bus to celebrate the New Year.