A woman, in her mid 20s decides to usher into the new year by going to a party and pays the price by getting molested by a mob in spite of police presence and in full public view; she yells and screams for help as a few perverted men tear her dress below the waist;
even her companion at the party – a young man of almost same age – is unable to help her when in the course of being pulled and pushed, the woman falls down and the perverts get another chance to outrage her modesty for nearly ten minutes;
the watchful camera of a newspaper photographer catches the shameful incident and the matter is brought to light; the police initially pretends ignorant; as the story is published by the newspaper and followed up by many news channels, the police tries to wash off its hands saying that the victim had not come forward to lodge a complaint with them;
five men seen in the pictures clicked by the photographer have been detained for interrogation; the victim and her friend have not been identified yet (till I got my last updates on the news); a phone call to the newspaper office helped the newspaper reporters and the police team to search the Ghatkopar chawls to detain the five men;
This is what the historical Gateway of India witnessed on New Year’s Eve; The footage of the incident on various news channels stunned everyone as Mumbai is considered the safest city for women.
Mumbai of late is becoming more infamous than popular. While the Mumbai Bomb Blasts rocked the nation, this incident has shocked the nation.
Cameraman Shadab Khan from Mid Day newspaper, published from Mumbai, was deputed at the Gateway of India to capture the mood of the supposedly high-spirited Mumbaikars on the New Year’s Eve; while standing on a temporary watchtower erected by the police, his lens instead captured two incidents of molestation of women in full public view, and in the presence of an ignorant group of nearly 50 cops ‘on duty’.
For all those who would blame the victim saying that she was not appropriately dressed (read scantly dressed) and therefore invited lecherous men to molest her, cameraman Shadab also captured another incident of molestation – that of a saree-clad women, at the same venue, and almost the same time; the saree-clad woman was lucky to have got help to move out before anything untoward could happen to her.
The problem is not with the dress; the problem is with the mindset;
Whatever, the fact remains that a woman was molested in full public view and no body came forward to help her friend rescue her?
The way the victimized women and their families are traumatized after reporting a crime like rape or molestation, no wonder this girl chose not to lodge a complaint with the police.
For once, I agreed with Bal Thackray and his views in the Shiv Sena mouth piece ‘Saamna’ that the incident should be taken seriously, and even if the victim has not come forward to register a complaint with the police, the police should book the culprits as soon as possible.
With five of the men in custody for interrogation, there are chances that the Mumbai police would try to do the needful.
I wonder if people would remember the Gateway of India for the right reasons.
This incident might project it as the Gateway of Indignity…
Shame Maharashtra! Shame India!
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Hello Shashi Krishna,
Can see your concern so no offence meant but I do not agree with the following :
Why do girls/women hang out at such places where there is bound to be a grand amount of drunk men?
It should be - why drunk men hang out at such places where women, children and normal men present? Its the men who have no control. Not the women. A drunk woman does not usually go around attacking men. Just because women have 10% less muscle than men does not mean they should not have the freedom to go to certain places or dress a certain way. It is a free world...but that does not mean it is free will to behave fiendishly!
- LC
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