Wireless operator A B Jagtap was returning home after duty around 6.30 am on Wednesday when he noticed a scooterist who intercepted a woman pedestrian and tried to drag her inside the Empress Garden.

None of the passers-by intervened though the 21-year-old woman screamed for help. A heated argument ensued between the wireless operator in plain clothes and the scooterist, Nasing Nasir Sayyed (27) of Bhimpura, when Jagtap went to rescue the victim.

Jagtap had snatched the scooter keys from Sayyed by the time some policemen from Bhairoba Nala chowki reached the spot. Sayyed fled on seeing them. The wireless operator was about to leave the spot after the policemen took the victim and Sayyed's scooter to the police chowki when he spotted Sayyed hiding in a bush on the Empress Garden campus.

``I sprinted and caught hold of his T-shirt. However, he removed it and rain into the bushes. He came out when I threw stones. Immediately, I pounced upon him and handed him over to the police,'' Jagatp recalled.