pune

Updated: Sep 03, 2019 07:35 IST

A non-cognisable offence was registered against an American woman in Pune for allegedly attacking a female doctor on Sunday after asking her if she was a Muslim. The American national was identified as Jaime Lynn Lewis, 43, a resident of Montana in the United States.

Lewis allegedly attacked the doctor on Sunday and had earlier also attacked a pair of burqa-clad female students on August 24. The complaint was lodged by Dr Qaseema Khan, a resident of Kondhwa, Pune, who was attacked by Lewis.

“I was going at Clover Centre, when she came in front of me,” said Dr Khan, who has a clinic in Kondhwa. In her complaint, Dr Khan has submitted that Lewis asked her if she was a Muslim before verbally abusing and physically assaulting her.

“She was abusing everyone including the police as well as the people from the embassy. Our effort will be to get her deported,” said senior police inspector Chandrakant Bhosale of Lashkar police station. “The matter seems like it is a ‘hate crime’, but it is not. She seems to suffer from a mental condition,” he added.

“We have checked her records and found that she is on prescription drugs and is taking treatment. When we called the embassy while she was here, she started abusing us as well as the embassy officials,” said assistant police inspector AP Suryavanshi of Lashkar police station who is investigating the case.

The 43-year-old woman was brought to the Lashkar police station, but released later. She lives in a house owned by Asif Ali Khan, who is a Pune-based businessman and a friend of the woman. “She is friends with the Muslim owner of the house and has been in India on a tourist visa since April 17. She had been to Pune three years ago as well and had lived in the same house,” said API Suryavanshi.

Speaking about a similar attack by Lewis on August 24, Shafaq Shaikh, said, “I was wearing a head scarf and my friend was wearing a burqa. We were crossing the road near Dastur school when she came running in our direction and started trying to hit us. She tried to kick us as well. We had just stepped out from college for lunch. We were not in a mindset to handle this at all. Some people interfered, but were hesitant to touch her as she was a foreigner and then she went inside Clover Centre.”

Shaikh and her friend are students pursuing post graduation from Abeda Inamdar College in Camp. They approached the Bund garden police station officials on August 26 and a non-cognisable offence was registered against an “unidentified woman” who was later found to be Lewis.