Mumbai: A 25-year-old airhostess has lodged a complaint of sexual assault against a man who posed as a transgender and entered her flat assuring relief to her ailing husband through black magic on Tuesday afternoon.Police arrested the accused, Anil Shinde (28), from a slum pocket in Kalwa early on Wednesday after his movement was traced through 100-plus closed-circuit television cameras from near the Powai building till he reached Kalwa. Shinde was apprehended within four hours of FIR registration, said a police source.Police further said that Shinde also collected Rs 200 from the airhostess before leaving the flat.Apart from rape and criminal intimidation sections, police said they will also invoke black magic sections against Shinde, who is in custody.“He claimed that his family is into begging by posing as transgenders. We are gathering details as to whether he has committed a similar offence in the past,” said a police officer.The alleged incident occurred on Tuesday, between 12.20pm and 12.50pm, when Shinde, dressed as a transgender, entered the woman’s building after taking the security guard into confidence. “Shinde went knocking on each and every flat in the building, till the airhostess opened her flat door on the third floor. Under the pretext of ‘warding off evil eye’, Shinde sexually assaulted her,” said deputy commissioner of police (West Zone-3) Datta Nalawade.In the police complaint, the woman said: “I allowed the transgender to enter my flat thinking he would cure my husband, who is in hospital. I got hypnotised after the person sprinkled some water on me and kept his hand on my head. He sexually assaulted me and when I screamed, he left after collecting Rs 200.”The airhostess later approached the police around 11pm. An FIR was registered and Nalawade supervised a team of senior inspector A S Sawant, inspector Sushant Bandgar, sub-inspector Sandeep Patil and staff to trace and apprehend the accused.
