Source: Catch News | Image Courtesy: Deccan Chronicle
An young woman and four of her friends were driving through Hesaraghatta in north Bengaluru on 31 January, when an angry mob stopped them and dragged them out of their WagonR. The woman, a 21-year-old from Tanzania, was stripped, thrashed, violated while the police watched, Deccan Chronicle reports.
The BBA student at Acharya College didn’t know why any of this was happening to her. As it turns out, a Sudanese man, a complete stranger to her, had run over a 35-year-old woman with his sedan in the same spot 30 minutes prior to the attack. The mob decided that since she was of African origin, she too was involved in the case, and so they took matters into their hands.
“The scared students were forced out of the car and then the car was set ablaze. The driver of the second car identified as Micah S Pundugu was beaten up black and blue by the mob who then stripped the girl student,” Bosco Kaweesi, Legal Adviser at All African Students Union in Bengaluru told Deccan Chronicle.
The case reeks of complete miscarriage of justice. Here’s a point by point break down:
1. When the local police standing near the mob didn’t intervene, a concerned bystander tried to cover the girl with his t-shirt. He too was beaten up by the mob.
2. The girl tried to flee by entering a BMTC bus at the junction. The passengers in the bus threw her back on the road. People got down from buses, autos etc to join the mob.
3. When the girl finally got away from the mob, she headed straight to a police station where she was harassed again. The police demanded that she bring the Sudanese man to the station, in order for them to register her complaint.
4. As Kaweesi puts it, “When the girl did not even know about the accident or the spot where it happened, how can she bring in the driver of the car?”
5. The mob had set the car ablaze which meant that the African students lost their passports, ATM cards, cash etc. So the students couldn’t even pay for medical bills and were sent out of hospital, despite being injured.
The Logical Indian would like to convey our sincere condolences to the man who lost his life due to the accident and also condemns the mob who carried out this act. We demand authorities to take action against the mob and police officers, who didn’t take any action to prevent the incident. Violence against African’s residing in India has grown exponentially, let us together condemn this act of mob justice and violence against Africans. Let us make a Indian that is safe for us and for all.
