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Molest and escape: Why hooligans have it easy
Published on Fri, Jan 04, 2008 at 08:03, Updated on Fri, Jan 04, 2008 at 11:06 in India section
Tags: Face The Nation, Mumbai
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India has a woman President, a woman is heading the ruling party, one has even touched the stars and yet another is heading a successful international business enterprise, but safety for women on Indian streets remains abysmal. [Read what figures show]
The two women, who were sexually harassed by over 60 men in Mumbai, still refuse to lodge a formal complaint with the police, saying they are not happy with the media attention the incident has been garnering.
Sources in the Mumbai police, however, claim that they have cracked the case. Two men, out of 13 detained have been identified as the molesters and are being interrogated. [Read Story]
This case, in particular, has been made tough for the Mumbai police because of the victims’ reluctance to lodge a formal complaint. [Read what the victim says]
However, this is by no means an isolated case. In fact, molestation victims rarely come forward to complain.
An instance in point is last year’s infamous molestation case during the New Year’s Eve’s revelry at the Gateway of India. A lack of a primary complainant forced the Mumbai police to charge the five accused of theft, instead of molestation. Even though a chargesheet had been filed in the case, the trial is still awaited.
Legal experts believe problems that stall police investigations into cases of sexual molestation are usually the lack of a primary complainant. However, another problem appears to be the attitude of the police themselves, to such cases, an attitude which was revealed when Mumbai’s Police Commissioner D N Jadhav accused the media of making a mountain out of a molehill. “Keep your wives at home if you want them safe,” he said, “These kind of small things can happen anywhere.”
Despite the Commissioner’s casual stance, the Mumbai police have responded with creditable efficiency in this case, even requesting the public to help them, for a cash award. However, the question remains: Do hooligans think they can get away with molestation?
Debating the issue on CNN-IBN’s Face the Nation were lawyer and social activist, Flavia Agnes; criminal lawyer Majid Memon; Inspector General of Police (CID, Maharashtra) Meeran Borvankar and fashion designer Rina Dhaka.
From the looks of the New Year’s Eve attack on the two women, it has become apparent that molesters are completely unafraid of the law, especially in light of the attitude revealed by very senior police officials. [Read Story]
IG (CID) Meeran Borvankar unequivocally refuted the idea that molesters are fearless because of the police’s attitude.
According to Borvankar, glaring loopholes appear in such cases because there are no formal complaints being made.
“Lack of victims coming forward and witnesses not being available are the soft spots for such cases,” she said.
Lawyer Flavia Agnes did not disagree that there are few witnesses and fewer complainants for such cases, but she felt that the police themselves do not display an adequately serious attitude for a matter as delicate as sexual molestation.
“It’s not a question of laws not being tough enough. I think there is no prompt action,” she said.
Agnes demanded to know why the complaint had not been registered when the two women had been brought to the police station. She implied that such a lax attitude on part of the law-enforcers demonstrated their lack of seriousness.
“Of course, women don’t come forward. But there is no seriousness on part of the police, either, and I think that’s one of the biggest problems we’d be facing today,” she insisted.
Agnes pointed out that the police had done their job so well only because propitiously, there happened to be a press photographer present at the site.
| SHAMEFUL PAST |
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 Manic MumbaiTwo years in a row, New Year revelry in Mumbai has gone awry. This year, in a city which boasts of being safe for women, a mob of 70 to 80 men groped and molested two women on a busy main street in Juhu early on New Year's Day. |
 Bad BeginningA New Year event last year at Mumbai's most famous landmark, the Gateway of India, made news after it went horribly sour. Drunk revellers stripped and molested a woman in public view, as her friend watched helplessly. (Picture courtesy Mid Day) |
 Safe Haven Turns HellMumbai is turning into a city that is getting increasingly and notoriously unsafe for women. The Maximum city is slowly but surely losing its reputation of being a safe haven for women. (Picture courtesy Mid Day) |
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URBANEYE
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the nightmare will continue cause our law and order system are not strict enough. even its strict also but because
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It is really pathetic , to know , how desperate and animalistic people at the age , when we call
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Now every where sex and romance.Today a boy of 7 or years and a girl less than that age knows
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I see this incident has a commercial ad for media companies, and one should mind that exploring such incidents to
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Everyday we come across violations of women's modesty - in many cases these are poor women and sometimes sadly, even
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