A Delhi University student has filed a complaint in Vasant Vihar police station against an unidentified middle-aged man after he allegedly molested her and masturbated in a state-run public bus in South Delhi.
The complainant was able to record the shocking incident with her mobile phone and has submitted it as evidence along with her complaint at the police station on 10 February.
An FIR was registered under Sections 354 A, 354 and 234 of the IPC against the accused passenger and the police have started investigating the case, said DCP South West Delhi, Milind Mahadeo Dumbere.
The disturbing incident took place on 7 February at around 3 p.m. in an orange cluster bus plying on route number 774 from Dwaraka to Badarpur in South Delhi. The complainant was sitting on one of the seats reserved for women passengers when the incident occurred.
The DU girl student had posted the incident’s video on Twitter on 10 February, and had tagged Delhi Police, DCW and other authorities. Describing her ordeal, the complainant, a final year DU student, told The Statesman: “I was stunned to feel his hands on my waist and realised that he is deliberately doing it. Before raising an alarm I wanted to gather evidence and so I discreetly recorded his activity. He was unaware that I was recording. After I recorded one-minute video, I stopped recording and raised an alarm.”
She said at the time of the incident there were more than thirty passengers, men and women, in the bus, but no one came forward to help her and rather chose to ignore her pleas for help and support.
She said despite her cries the accused did not show any remorse. “He was in fact telling me to step down from bus. He however himself got off the bus at next stop at IIT gate,” she said.
The DU student said that she had initially been in a trauma and so she could not immediately file her police complaint. “I shared the incident with my mother. But as she was more concerned about my safety she advised me not to approach the police and let it go. But one of my friends motivated me to file complaint or post the video on Twitter. So I posted the video on 10 February and tagged few authorities,” she said.
The complainant also accused the Vasant Vihar police officials of being allegedly callous and apathetic as they made her wait for six hours before registering her complaint.
Denying this allegation, Monika Bharadwaj, Additional DCP1, told The Statesman that since there were some technical faults in the computer the police station officials told her that the FIR copy would be delivered to her house.
However, the complainant refused to take this option and herself decided to wait, Bharadwaj said, adding “She was not in a favor to let her mother know about her decision to file complaint.”
Bharadwaj said seven police teams were working in the case. “We have circulated the pictures of the accused to all the pickets, police stations and our local sources. We are also interrogating the driver of the bus to know if the accused is a frequent passenger of that route,” the officer said.
The victim reportedly lodged her complaint with the police in the wake of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson Swati Maliwal’s intervention.
Expressing her outrage over the incident, Maliwal tweeted, “I saw her shocking tweet and the act caught on video was too sick. I immediately ensured registration of her FIR. Worst is no one in bus came to her aid. This man is a danger to society and should be given strong punishment!”