According to Jadhav, four of them rushed forward to check what the commotion was about and two of them, Nilesh Bhagyatkar and Sudhir Naikwade, were captured in photographs shot by two journalists at the spot.

At about 1.45 am on January 1, two couples leaving the J W Marriott were caught in an unruly mob of men. The two women were molested for close to 10 minutes until the photographers at the spot alerted a passing traffic police van. After waiting over 24 hours to register a case, the police finally launched a hunt for the culprits, announcing a reward for information on those in the photographs.

The 14 arrested late Thursday have been charged under Sections 143, 147, 148, 149, 323, 354, 341, 504 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 135 of the Bombay Police Act. Deputy Commissioner of Police K M Prasanna said, “More arrests will be made in the case.”

Defence lawyer Nagesh Joshi, who appeared for the 14 accused, said the prosecution could not satisfy the court on why they needed police custody. “The court felt that there was no need for arguing the case at this stage,” he added.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief minister R R Patil on Friday said the state would urge the Centre to make Section 354 of the IPC non-bailable.