“At this point of time, I would not like to disclose the results of the parade. In case more witnesses come forward, we will have to conduct another identification parade,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police K M Prasanna. “The five witnesses comprised ACP (Traffic) Amarjeet Singh, two other traffic policemen and the two Hindustan Times photographers who had clicked the photographs at the time of the incident,” he added.

About statements from the victims of the molestation, Prasanna said: “The police are constantly in touch with the victims in order to persuade them to come forward. But so far, they don’t seem to have made up their minds.”

The Juhu police had arrested the 14 youths late on Thursday. Yesterday, all of them were granted bail by a magistrate’s court in Andheri on a surety of Rs 10,000 each. “Though we have furnished the surety documents, it will take the police authorities at least a couple of days to confirm the genuineness of the persons appearing as sureties. The 14 will be released from prison only after the police complete the verification process,” said Shirish Bhave, the advocate appearing on behalf of the 14 accused.

Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil had said yesterday that the state would appeal against the bail in the High Court.

One of the 14 accused is a resident of Kandivli, another lives in Vile Parle (East) and the remaining 12 are all residents of a single housing colony on Shraddhanand Road in Vile Parle (East).

Around 1.45 am on January 1, two young couples leaving the J W Marriott hotel were caught in an unruly mob of men on Juhu Tara Road. The two women were molested for close to 10 minutes. The photographers at the spot alerted a passing traffic police van.