He kept staring into her eyes.

Now he is in prison, charged with sexual harassment. Ali says he was trying to ``hypnotise'' her.

Sub-inspector Rekha was returning home after day duty at the Maurice Nagar Police Station when the incident happened. She had folded her uniform and kept it in the police station locker and had changed into a cream salwar kurta. With a black vanity bag in hand, the sub-inspector walked to the bus stop near St Stephen's college.

There were not many people there as it is not a scheduled bus stop. As she stood waiting for the bus to arrive, Ali came on an unusually decorated bicycle. The young man got down and allegedly stared into Rekha's eyes.

``Bhago yahan sey (Get lost!),'' Rekha said. But Ali continued to stare at her. When Rekha abused him, Ali shouted back. The sub-inspector then spotted a colleague walking past on the other side of the road and signalled to him.

That was when Ali realised his mistake, he left his cycle and tried to flee. Rekha and her colleague, however, managed to catch him. At the police station, Ali pleaded innocence claiming that he was only trying to test his ability to hypnotise people. ``Little did I know that she was a police officer,'' Ali told the police. He is separated from his wife and lives alone in a small house in Karol Bagh. Ali, the police say, requested them not to file a case as it would ``ruin his career as a teacher in a madarsa.'' The police have filed a case against Ali under Section 509 of the IPC for an ``insulting the modesty of a woman.''