Victim turns away panel,cops say was fighting with friend when mob came in

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Friday ordered a high-level inquiry into the incident and asked Additional Chief Secretary Emily Choudhury to conduct the probe in 15 days. He also directed that all those involved in the assault should be arrested at the earliest and asked the DGP and Home Secretary to take action against those police officers responsible for dereliction of duty. Only three arrests have been made so far.

Giving details of the incident,DGP J N Choudhury told The Indian Express,According to information available with me,this girl had gone to the bar to celebrate the birthday of another girl,and was accompanied by three young men. They had a couple of drinks each and were about to make payment when the birthday girl discovered she was not carrying her ATM card. This led to an argument among them following which the bar manager threw them out.

While the birthday girl and two of the men left the place,this girl got into a physical fight with the other man outside the bar,attracting the attention of some people hanging around the place. While one or two persons tried to separate them and break the quarrel,some lumpen elements took advantage of the situation,with one of them even trying to pull down the undergarments of the girl who was wearing a skirt, Choudhury said. The assault continued from about 9.45 pm to 10.00 pm when the police arrived after an employee of a hotel nearby called up the nearest Bhangagarh police station.

An off-duty Deputy SP,who happened to pass by around that time,stopped and tried to intervene and save the girl,but being not in uniform,the miscreants did not pay any heed to him. The police finally rescued the girl, he said.

By that time at least one local TV news channel had taken extensive visuals of the episode,which it telecast,with viewers saying they initially showed the face of the girl something that has led to criticism that the media handled the issue in an insensitive manner. Another local channel also ran the footage,which was picked by a national channel on Thursday evening.

I have seen the visuals aired by a channel,where her face was clearly identifiable. What is more disgusting is that the TV reporter repeatedly asked the girl her name. The TV channel in its report even mentioned her name once or twice and revealed who her parents were and where she lived. How can the media do this? said Indrani Dutta,former director of the OKD Institute of Social Change amp; Development.

In a joint statement,16 womens groups and NGOs not only described the incident as barbarous and most disturbing,but also part of a pattern and trend occurring in the state.

It is an assault not only on a girl but also on the freedom of the individual in a public space. The incident of chasing and sexually abusing the teenager in the full glare of TV camera in Guwahati is barbarous and most disturbing. Had it been a stray and isolated incident,this could have been termed as an aberrational human behavior. But that is not what it is; rather there is a trend and pattern in it.

The NGOs also hit out at the media,calling them insensitive and accusing them of creating lopsided public opinion. The objective of the media was not to prevent recurrence of such incidents but to play with the voyeuristic pleasure of the diseased minds for narrow business interests, the NGOs said.

NOT THE FIRST TIME

November 24,2007: An Adivasi girl was stripped on the streets of Guwahati at Beltola,about one km from the CMs office by some men after a demonstration organised by the All Adivasi Students Association of Assam turned violent. While the incident triggered clashes between the Adivasi community and others across the state,the police later arrested three persons in this connection. In that incident,a section of the media both print and electronic carried visuals of the victim and revealed her identity.

December 28,2010: A Mizo woman was beaten up and her clothes torn off in Guwahatis Chandmari locality. This time the perpetrators were women. Three women,including a BJP local level leader,were arrested on the basis of video footage taken by a local TV channel.

May 25,2012: A girl was beaten up by the police including by a woman constable inside the Dispur police station after she was picked up while allegedly creating a violent scene after coming out of a bar. Several TV crews shot the girl being beaten up inside the police station,with revealed her identity.

June 29,2012: Congress legislator Rumi Nath and her second husband whom she married recently even before obtaining a divorce from her first husband were beaten up by a mob in Karimganj. TV channels extensively covered the incident and showing the visuals for several days.