A final year architecture student of Jamia Milia Islamia was allegedly sexually harassed by a rickshaw puller outside the New Delhi Metro Station last Thursday, 10 May 2018. “They’ve asked me to come to the court to give my statement. I will be going to the Tis Hazari court tomorrow to do it,” said the student, when a member of the editorial collective of the Indian Cultural Forum spoke to her this evening.
As per a report by The Hindu, published on 11 May 2018, she was accosted by the accused when she was looking for a rickshaw to Pahargunj. According to the student, the accused seemed drunk. When the accused made an attempt to grab her, the student retaliated. She dragged him to a nearby Police Post. On finding it locked, she called the number written on the Post wall and made a verbal complaint of sexual harassment. The police personnel who picked up the call assured her that a police officer would reach the scene within 5 minutes. However, despite repeated calls to the given number, no police personnel arrived to the aid of the student even 40 minutes after the first call.
Meanwhile, a small crowd had gathered around the student. To add insult to injury, they ridiculed and derided her for trying to take action against the accused. Moreover, the accused also continued to verbally sexually harass her.
After waiting for close to an hour, the student was forced to give up. The next day, on Friday morning, she recounted the entire episode on her Twitter account. It was only then that the Delhi Police sprang into action. Madhur Verma, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) of the New Delhi district, called her in the afternoon and assured her that he was taking matters into his own hands. “They had to file the FIR after the order came directly from Madhur Verma,” she said. “After that, I received a call from the Police Post where the incident happened. I went there and registered an FIR.”
The report in The Hindu quoted the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Railways) Parvaiz Ahmed, “Duty officer Head Constable Chanderbhan, to whom the call was made, and Investigating Officer ASI Shibu, to whom the call was assigned, have been suspended for delay in response.”
The student will go to the Tis Hazari court tomorrow to record her statement before a district magistrate.
