Originally posted on Facebook
His name is Nikhil and he tried to molest my friend – She was walking down M block (near barakhamba red light) Connaught Place, when this gentleman came and tried kissing her in broad daylight. This happened in one of the most crowded places and no, she was not dressed inappropriately (coz that is what many in our society think when a girl is harassed) – so, she got hold of the guy and started screaming at him, when some passersby came and helped her nab him. The worst mistake was to call the cops – they came 40 minutes after calling (she held onto him for that long) and the first thing the cops did was to take him inside his van and talk to him ( now I know what they had discussed!). The cops came out and asked my friend to write an application to the SHO Connaught place police station explaining what really happened to her – She wrote an application and the sub-inspector ( Mr. Sanjiv Kumar) rejected right away saying she was not clear. She wrote an application 2nd time – again he said she hasn’t explained “in detail” what has happened to him and what this guy did to her. By this time she was shaking with disgust and anger & tears, started flowing.
Finally, I offered to write an application in very clear words – “this guy Mr. Nikhil tried to molest me by attempting to kiss me” and guess what? It was again rejected by the sub-inspector saying that I wrong in thinking that she was molested. According to him just trying to kiss a girl is NOT molestation!!!!!!!!! So he rejected our application for the 3rd time. The sub-inspector (Mr. Sanjiv kumar) tried to scare us by saying that we will have to come to the police station, and then come to the court tomorrow in front of the Magistrate and then finally my friend should be calling her parents or relatives. I asked why aren’t his people being called- he said there was no need! It felt as we were the criminals and he is the victim. We realised we live in a place where every girl has to fight for herself – We should have just beaten the pulp out of this guy and let him lie on road rather than take him to the cops because clearly, the police ain’t there to protect us- it is there to protect the mentality that women are second class citizens.
My friend felt humiliated and afraid at the same time – humiliated because everyone of the people standing and watching the tamasha felt that we were overreacting – u know he is just a guy… Let him go!And afraid that if We fight more she might end up being followed and harassed…. The police have even forwarded her number to this guys parents (they called her last night) and now she fears the worst… Why am I bringing up my daughters in this godforsaken place?
