GURUGRAM: A group of five men heckled and molested a Gurugram-based

and thrashed her male colleague in

last Saturday after the two spotted the group taking photos and videos of them on a mobile camera and asked them to stop.

Four of the men, among them the son of local dhaba owner and a tractor driver, have been arrested and slapped with sexual harassment, intimidation and various other charges of the IPC. Police said it appeared to be an instance of moral policing by the group that was apparently “suspicious” about what a man and a woman were doing there. All the accused are between 27 and 35 years old.

The woman is 32 and is a senior communication executive with a European multinational firm with offices in Cyber City, police said. She also lives in Gurugram.

Around 4.40pm on Saturday (Feb 10), the woman and her friend had stopped opposite Manesar’s government polytechnic college, just off NH-8, on their way back to Gurugram from Jaipur. The spot provides a vantage view of the valley ahead. It was a sight they wanted to absorb for a while, and take some pictures. The colleague also wanted to show the woman his college, which is visible from there.

“The view is good from there, so we stopped. It was just three minutes from the main road and we could see small and a flag of India fluttering somewhere in the distance,” the woman told police in her complaint.

“I took a picture of the landscape and sent it to my family. Then these men came there. I first thought they were local guards but I found one of them making a video of us. I objected and they started manhandling us and touching me objectionably,” she added.

She and her colleague scrambled to their EcoSport that was parked nearby and managed to drive away. The woman said she called the police for help once the SUV started moving.

Her colleague, who is Indian and understands the local language, told this correspondent he had sensed danger the moment the men approached them. “They misbehaved with me first. I could sense their intentions weren’t good and asked her to get back to the car. When she tried to, they tried to stop her and pulled her hand.”

Police said they began an immediate search for the men based based on the descriptions given by the two. After questioning local residents, they nabbed four men — Sandeep, Vinod, Jitender and Rakesh — on Sunday night from Manesar. On Monday morning, three of them were sent to judicial custody by a local court. Sandeep, the main accused, was remanded in police custody. Police said Sandeep (29) drives a tractor for a living. Mukesh, the fifth accused, is absconding.

“I was crying till we reached the car. I could see these men were enjoying themselves. They were laughing,” the woman said in her complaint.

An FIR was registered at Manesar police station under sections 354A (sexual harassment), 323 (causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation), 504 (insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC.

Rahul Dev, SHO of Manesar police station, said Sandeep had been taken into remand for further questioning for a detailed investigation.