Mumbai, Jan. 5: All the 14 youths arrested for the Juhu New Year molestation were today identified as “attackers” by the two news photographers who clicked the scene and three other eyewitnesses.

The assistant commissioner of police (traffic), Amarjeet Singh, present at the identification parade, refused to explain whether “attacker” meant molester — that is, if each of the 14 had actually molested the two NRI victims.

Each accused has been charged with using force to outrage a woman’s modesty and illegal assembly, which can respectively bring jail terms of up to two years and six months.

The victims and the photographers had earlier said there were four to five molesters, watched by scores of leering men.

Police sources could not say whether different eyewitnesses had identified a different set of boys or each had nailed all 14. But they insisted that all the boys were present during the molestation even if every one of them did not touch the women.

Early this morning, the accused were marched out from behind a wired mesh at Arthur Road Jail to face the five eyewitnesses, whose statements were recorded before a special executive magistrate as well as ACP Singh, his driver and a constable.

One of the photographers, when contacted, said: “I don’t have permission to speak to the media.”

Ville Parle, where 13 of the 14 youths live — nine in the same apartment building — reacted with shock to reports that seemingly ordinary boys-next-door could be molesters.

“They are the nicest boys I know. They recently organised a blood donation camp,” said a 35-year-old neighbour.

The youths helped the elderly carry in their grocery or cross the road, residents said. The 13 from Ville Parle were neighbourhood cricket heroes, winning for their Bal Gopal Mitra Mandal club two local tournaments, including the recent Parle Mahotsav meet.

“I watched them play cricket. They never looked the sort to molest a woman. They seemed so like my brothers and friends,” said Mohita Agarwal, 20.

College student Ruchi Shah (name changed), 16, said she often bought sandwiches from accused Ravindra Shukla’s shop. “He was invariably polite. He never misbehaved with me.”

“They (the 13 club cricketers) were inseparable. They practised their entire free time,” a club member said. “They weren’t so good at their studies but all are good players. They did a lot of social work.”

City psychiatrist Harish Shetty said he wasn’t surprised, because molesters didn’t come from a particular layer of society.

“This has nothing to do with caste or creed. Mumbai is suffering from what we call the ‘disaster syndrome’, where looting, harassing and raping become the norm,” he said, adding that this was especially true of mobs.

“One loses one’s cultural inhibitions and becomes part of a crowd. The angst of one’s life combines with alcohol…. It isn’t planned; one just goes with the flow.”

Nine of the 14 are Maharashtrians, in contrast to the Shiv Sena claim that “outsiders” were blackening Mumbai’s reputation.

A front-page article in party mouthpiece Saamna said the real molesters had got away and the arrested boys were being persecuted. It painted the issue as a clash between Marathis and non-Marathis.

The police have appealed to the victims to get in touch at least through email. Officers say the victims’ statements and their ability to identify the molesters would be crucial to the case.

“We are waiting for them to recover from the shock. We appeal to them to cooperate,” an officer said, adding that an email could be admitted as evidence after checking its source.

“And if they appear in person as witnesses, they can pin the guilty down at an identification parade.”

Lawyer Shirish Bhave, representing 12 of the accused, said the victims’ absence would help his case. “My clients cannot be held for molestation. They can at worst be charged with unlawful assembly. The police have no conclusive proof that these children molested the women.”