The man was the girl's father, Raja Ram, a sub-inspector from Madurai police. He had come down after hearing rumors that his daughter was dating someone and decided to take out his anger on her in the middle of the road. As the incident happened, the mother of the girl, a teacher from Madurai, was standing by as a silent bystander.
While mob of men standing by didn't come forward to rescue the girl who was being attacked, two women employees of private firm nearby decided to intervene. They wrested her from the man and ushered her into their car.
Niveditha and Archana, the two women who came to the abused woman's rescue, were on their way to a nearby breakfast place, around 8.30am, when they saw this atrocity in front of them. "We were shocked to see this man, well-built, kicking a girl in her groin repeatedly in public. We got off the car and my friend tried to push him away, while I tried to remove his hands from her hair," Niveditha said.
Even as these women were making an attempt to free the girl, the mob continued to watch the drama, without moving an inch. "In his attempts to resist, the man was pushing us as well," she added.
Niveditha said that there was a young man standing by, trying to help. Once they freed the girl, they asked him to help her get out there. "He had a helmet in his hand, so we told him to take her away on his bike. But then the father removed the key from the bike," she said.
Desperate to get her out there, both women tried to hire an autorickshaw but the father stopped them. Finally, to escape the man, they locked themselves inside their car for over 30 minutes along with the battered woman. "We wanted to get out of there, but he sat on our bonnet. There were so many people standing by, if one of them had removed him from the car, we could have taken her to safety. But no one did," said Niveditha.
They called the cops but the cops turned up only half hour later. It was while sitting in the car, with a furious man waiting outside, that the girl told the story. "She said her father was a sub-inspector with Madurai police and hearing the rumors he landed up at her hostel in the morning. He dragged her out of the hostel and started attacking her. She kept saying the rumors weren't true, but he wouldn't believe her," she added.
Half an hour later, Ulsoor police landed up on the spot and took the family to the police station. When TOI called up the police station, they said the girl didn't want to file a complaint and father has been let go. When asked if there will be suomoto case against the father for the assault, cops repeated - 'the girl doesn't have any complaints."
Niveditha, who is now back to work, is still worried. She wrote about the incident on her Facebook wall and it has been shared widely on social media today. "He is a cop and he was beating up his daughter mercilessly. And then you have a crowd of people who are watching the drama without moving an inch. Makes you wonder what sort of society we live in," says Niveditha.
Times of India
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