The woman filed a complaint on Thursday following which police arrested the accused on Friday.
DCP (West) Richa Tomar said Bijju Mulridharan was arrested under Section 376 (rape) of the IPC.
The incident took place at a hotel in the Sindhi Camp police station area here. Sindhi Camp SHO Gunjan Soni said the complainant was a Dutch tourist who had been staying there for the past six days. She had called an ayurvedic massage service through the hotel.
The woman in her police complaint alleged that she received the ayurvedic massage around 2.30pm on Wednesday in the hotel where a few minutes later, the masseur began to touch and stroke her private parts. He later apologised when she asked him to stop. The accused also asked her not to tell anyone.
Tomar said the accused’s actions constituted rape and therefore he was booked under Section 376 (rape) of the IPC.
Police said she was shocked after the incident and a day later approached police with the help of the hotel’s staff.
“We first put her in a comfortable zone so that she could explain everything that took place,” Soni said, adding that two teams were constituted for the investigation. Even as the complaint was being registered, police teams fanned out to track down the accused before he could flee.
(The victim’s identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
