Just like any other teenage boy, son of an ex-Army Man, Kuldeep was also dreaming of his proud future with the Indian Armed Forces until that fateful day that changed his entire life. He and his friends got into a scuffle inside a Haryana Roadways Bus with two girls Aarti and Pooja and lives of all three of them changed forever. A video showing the girls hitting Kuldeep with belts went Viral and the media painted them as “Sexual Predators, Molesters, Eve Teasers” without knowing anything at all about the case but merely on the basis of what girls told them. No media house tried to know what had actually happened in the bus but within a day of news hitting national media, awards were announced for the sisters, driver and conductor of the bus were suspended, boys were thrown in Jail. All this while, no one really knew what had happened. Forget media, even police did not make any efforts to trace people who were sitting in the bus and investigate. Barrage of accusations by girls were taken on face value until fellow passengers came forward after seeing a “Row over Seats”turned into a “Molestation” case. Several videos came after that.
When I first came across the viral video of girls, I too supported them as a woman, until I went to villages near by in which the entire episode happened. What I saw and heard has been captured in my videos THE OTHER SIDE OF ROHTAK BRAVEHEARTS and THE FINAL SIDE OF ROHTAK BRAVEHEARTS. I never knew the girls, nor the boys, but I wanted to know the truth. I do not wish to pass any judgment on the case. It’s left to honorable courts. But consider this – one of the sisters told on TIMES NOW “the public snatched our phone so that we do not seek help.” However, as the world has seen, the younger sister in the viral video can be heard asking for her phone from the bag. This is just one example of how media and public were provoked to garner sympathy and demand strict action against the boys.
I have been told that the girls demanded scooty for each and a public shaming of the boys on the street, to which the boys family denied and hence the viral video and the FIR.
What the girls and their father wanted is actually happening, since they did not give in to their demands. Kuldeep – the main accused in the case has been denied permission to write the exam for recruitment, scheduled to happen on February 1st, 2015. There has been no judgment of either court or police in this case, but still the army has denied permission to the boy to write his exam, despite him successfully clearing his physical and medical tests. IS THIS FAIR? How can mere accusations ruin a career of someone? Army can any point of time cancel his candidature if he is found guilty later on. But to deny him his right of writing the exam? Even if he is not eligible, do we not deserve to know the reason, lest everyone believes that the boys might have been guilty? What if the boy is proved innocent tomorrow? Who would pay back for his loss? Or just because he belongs to a family of very less means, any injustice can happen to him?
If you wish to raise your voice against this decision of Army, that too without making public the reason behind the same,
SIGN THIS PETITION: https://www.change.org/p/
-Deepika Bhardwaj
Independent Journalist
