ZOMI GIRL MOLESTED IN DELHI

Beaten up for saving sister

I am Lunte Samte, resident of Munirka. Manipur is my home state. I had earlier written a story in MetroNow – The Story of an NE Girl – detailing the ordeal faced by the Northeastern students in Delhi. And exactly a week later, my worst fears have come true.

I really want you to read the story and listen to yourself. This is a story about a girl being molested, teased and harassed. This is a story about two brothers helping their sister to regain her dignity. And this is a story about a indifference, partiality and prejudice of the Delhi Police who are supposed to be “with us, for us, always”.

A good friend and neighbour, Ms Katherine, 17, (name changed), was being teased and harassed by a Munirka vegetable vendor, Virender Gupta.

The story begins like this. On Friday, Katherine went to buy vegetables from the neigbourhood vendor. He smiled at her and asked who she was staying with and whom she was dating. She spurned his overtures and returned home.

When she came out of her house in the evening, the vendor smiled at her and said – “wanna drink beer with me?”

Katherine couldn’t bear this anymore. She was shocked and felt the earth swirl under her feet.

She began shouting at the vendor and said “Are you a fool? I have dignity and self respect.”

She rushed home and narrated her story to her brothers, Muan and Siam. They told the vendor to respect a woman’s dignity and stop teasing their sister. The vendor denied these allegations. The conversation could have ended on a quiet note, but the vendor suddenly began to scream and yell. Local residents rushed to the spot and beat up the two helpless brothers. Katherine screamed for help, but her cries were drowned in the mob uproar. Then their landlord intervened and the fight came to an end.

The vendor suffered a bruise while Katherine’s younger brother suffered head injuries and his spectacles were broken. The elder brother was injured in the back. Katherine and his brothers then went to the Vasant Vihar police station. The police officer simply refused to accept their complaint. They sided with the vendor and the brothers had a hard time trying to reason with them. The cops accused them of assaulting and injuring the vendor, and refused to take into account the fact that the brothers were only trying to protect themselves from a mob. Also, the police even threatened them. It was only after Robin Hibu, DCP (West) intervened that the police took down Katherine’s statement.

“It was so difficult to get the FIR lodged. Nobody was ready to help us except Mr Hibu. It was such a horrendous experience. My sister who was getting molested everyday needed help and the mob started beating us without reason,” said Muan.

Recent cases of molestation

“On September 16, four girls from Manipur were molested in Delhi University. The four girls students were molested near the bus parking at Kingsway Camp in DU area by some youths who came to participate in a recruitment rally conducted by the Delhi Police held at IP College on September 16.

A 57 year old science teacher has been arrested by the Northeast Delhi police for allegedly molesting girl students. According to the police, Chanderbal Tomar, a teacher at Nehru Memorial Middle School, was arrested at Mansarovar Park on Friday after some complaints of molestation were received against him. About a dozen girls had complained against him, the police said.

[MetroNow, October 1, 2007]

Teen Molested
A 17-year-old girl hailing from Manipur alleged she was molested by a vegetable vendor in Munirka in Southwest Delhi. A police case has been registered with Vasant Vihar police. According to the victim's complaint, she went to get vegetables from a local vendor on Friday when the accused passed lewed comments at her and also "asked het out for beer." The victim resisted and reportedly told her brothers about the incident. When they confronted the vendor, some locals collected and reportedly beat up the girl's brothers.

[Times of India, September 30, 2007]