NE women molested by four men; student
protestors attacked by Delhi police: NEFIS
New Delhi, March 1 (MExN): As the dust on Nido Tania’s death continues to raise a storm, more allegations of racial attacks in India on the people of the North East have emerged. The North East Forum for International Solidarity (NEFIS) has notified of another attack in Delhi on women from the North East, leading to a subsequent attack on students by the Delhi police who protested the same.
In a note circulated today, the NEFIS detailed the incident. It stated that two women from the North East community were sitting in a park opposite their paying guest accommodation in Vijay Nagar (close to Delhi University’s North Campus) around 10:30 when four “drunk and anti-social elements” started urinating in close vicinity to them and started indulging in obscene and lewd gestures such as displaying their private parts towards the woman. When the woman objected, the rowdy elements started beating both of them. Then they molested the girl and attempted to rape the woman, the note alleged.
Further, the NEFIS informed that when she raised an alarm, students from various North East communities living in the surrounding area gathered to show support. Police arrived shortly after the incident but instead of taking this grave matter seriously they tried to “hush up the matter in connivance with the local land lords.” Moreover they tried to make fun of the issue, thus showing the “insensitive and racial bias of the police.” This “irresponsible behavior” by the police, the NEFIS said, led to more students assembling at the location. When the students started pressurizing the police to file an FIR promptly, the police, instead of having a dialogue and taking the incident seriously started to misbehave with the female students and one of the North East women was allegedly slapped.
This led to slogan shouting from the students and to disperse the agitated crowd police resorted to “lathi charge, manhandling and molestation.” In this, the NEFIS alleged, many students were seriously injured and one student was taken into police custody where he was beaten so harshly that he cannot move now. When more students assembled, the police indulged in stone pelting. The NEFIS noted that neither did the police have any female personnel nor any senior police officer was there to handle the matter. Furthermore the police inaction led to three of the four accused escaping police custody and only in the early morning was the FIR filed. The students who suffered grievous injuries, many with stitches and bleeding profusely were not given MLC facility, the note stated.
“This clearly shows that lawlessness, racism and crime against women was promoted by the police itself and instead of providing confidence to the aggrieved parties they harassed and intimidated the public,” stated the NEFIS. “When the SHO was questioned on this issue he replied that this was a ‘security issue’. Whose security-we want to ask? What else can explain the detention of students in police station? Whose security are the police responsible for? Don’t North East people have any access to law? Where were the police when the incident happened? Why didn’t they provide justice promptly? Is the duty of police to be hand in glove with hooligans and rowdy elements?”
The NEFIS has asserted that the North East community will meet the senior police officers of Delhi police and concerned officers in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) so that justice is provided to the aggrieved parties. The issue is not over after the filing of FIR; “we also demand that the police personnel involved are suspended for their pathetic and illegal behavior. We also demand that all the four accused get arrested immediately or else we will resort to all the democratic means available to us to ensure so,” stated the NEFIS.
