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Journalism of Courage
A senior journalist working for an English news channel was allegedly chased by two men while she was on her way back home from the office late Thursday night. According to the woman, she was travelling from Noida Sector 129 to Vasant Kunj in her car when two men began following her on their two-wheeler.
On Friday afternoon, police detained two men for harassing the woman. The two men were identified as Deepak and Shubham, both residents of Dabri, and have been booked under BNS sections 324(4) (mischief), 126(2) (wrongful restraint), 79 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and 3(5) (common intent).
According to police sources, the two men work as bartenders and were allegedly drunk at the time of the incident. Police acknowledged that the woman showed great “courage and alertness” while handling the situation.
Speaking to The Indian Express, the woman said, “I left the office around 12.45 am… While I was on the (Noida-Greater Noida) expressway, I noticed two men on a bike following my car. They also tried to stop my car… At first, I ignored it because I assumed they were just having fun at my expense but then they began blocking my car repeatedly.”
When the men continued to follow her, the woman said she tried to take a video so that she could have proof of the harassment.
However, when the victim had to stop her car due to traffic, the pillion rider allegedly got off the bike, tried to smash her windshield and tried to open the door on the driver’s side.
“By this time, the traffic cleared up and I sped my car out of there. The men continued following me… I somehow reached the DND (flyover) and I saw one of the men take something out of his bag, like a long stick,” she said.
Terrified of what was unfolding, the victim called a colleague asking what to do, who told her to drive away as fast as she could. “By this time, one of the men smashed my rear view window with the stick… I kept driving away. The men chased me down and smashed the left side (passenger) window… I had reached Ashram by this time and I called another friend and the police and gave them my location,” she said.
She said she stopped by some parked cabs and asked the drivers for help. “The cab drivers asked me to park my car there and told me that they’d help me… By this time, the men had run away and a crowd had formed around me… the police came after a while and took my statement,” she said.
According to police, multiple teams were formed to identify and trace the accused. “CCTV footage from the route and nearby areas was meticulously examined, and intelligence from local sources was developed. Within a short span of time, both accused were identified and detained. We found they were previously involved in a case under the Arms Act… Both accused are being questioned and further investigation is in progress,” said DCP (Southeast) Hemant Tiwari.
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