MUMBAI, Jan 4: Police arrested 14 men on Friday for allegedly molesting two women outside a five-star hotel in Mumbai during New Year’s celebrations, a case that drew widespread criticism after police initially refused to pursue the culprits.

The men face charges of outraging the modesty of women, rioting, unlawful assembly, criminal intimidation and causing criminal breach of trust, said K.L. Prasad, a Mumbai police officer. If convicted, they face up to five years in prison.

The case grabbed headlines earlier this week when Indian newspapers and television news channels ran photographs of a crowd of nearly 50 men at the upscale Juhu beach area of Mumbai pinching, groping and grabbing the clothes of two women who sobbed and fell to the ground as their male companions tried to shield them.

The incident was captured on film by Hindustan Times photographers, who also alerted police.

Mumbai’s Police Commissioner D. N. Jadhav, initially dismissed the case as a routine one and blamed the media for blowing the incident out proportion.

“It’s just an offence, and I can’t force a cop to police every man in the city. These things can happen anywhere ... even right here where we are,” Jadhav told reporters on Tuesday.

He was reprimanded later Tuesday by R. R. Patil, the Maharashtra state home minister, who pledged to find the culprits.

Prasad said one suspect was brought to a police station by his parents and neighbours after they saw his picture in local newspapers, and he later revealed the names of other suspects.

“Many of the men know each other. They are school dropouts and do odd jobs,” Prasad told reporters. “They attended a party and consumed alcohol before going out on the roads to celebrate New Year’s Day when the incident happened.”

The husband of one of the victims said they live in California in the United States and they had come to Mumbai to celebrate the New Year after their wedding three days earlier in neighbouring Gujarat state.

“We were shocked. After the horrible experience we just wanted to get back to our hotel,” he told the Hindustan Times daily, refusing to be named on grounds of privacy.—AP