A woman has alleged that the Puducherry police indulged in moral policing and told her that she was "not dressed properly" when she visited the tourist town on Saturday along with her friends. The police, meanwhile, have denied the allegations. "I got a dressing lesson from the police in Puducherry as to how to dress! I was casually taking pictures with my friends and he said I wasn’t dressed properly. One of the police questioned my character,” tweeted Pranita Sandela along with a video of their argument with the police. In the video, two policemen were seen telling the women that the area belonged to the Aurobinda Ashram (a spiritual community) and asking them to go to some other place to take pictures. When a woman asks if the police had received any complaint, a policeman replies in the affirmative in the video. Speaking to indianexpress.com, Thirumurugesan, an official attached to the Grand Bazaar police station who was on patrol duty on Saturday, denied all the charges. He said they had asked the tourists to move away from the area as it was closer to the school. “We never questioned their dress or made any comments about them. It is a tourist area and we are no one to comment on anyone’s clothing. We received a complaint from the parents of one of the students of the Aurobindo school which is located next to the Ashram. The complainant said the school was about to end (for the day) and the children would be coming that way. We were told to ask these tourists to move from that area. We requested them to move from that area and take pictures in another area," he said. "They (the women) said they are from Hyderabad. So we asked one of our officials who knew Telugu to speak to them but they did not speak to him in Telugu and continued arguing with us. One of their friends took a video of the incident as well. After a certain point, we did not want to make this an issue and left the spot,” the officer added. The police added that no case has been registered in connection with the incident.
