Indian police investigate New Year sex attacks
Video kick-starts case as CCTV footage studied
BENGALURU // Indian police launched a criminal case yesterday after finding credible evidence that gangs of men sexually assaulted women at a New Year’s Eve celebration in Bengaluru. The investigation was prompted by the emergence of a video showing two men assaulting a woman as bystanders looked on. Praveen Sood, the police commissioner of Bengaluru city, said an inquiry had started into allegations of molesting and robbery without a specific complainant coming forward.
“We did not waste any time,” Mr Sood said. “The police teams are working, we are sure we will catch the culprits.”
The announcement followed a public outcry over comments by a local minister blaming the attacks on the “western dress” worn by the women.
Additional police commissioner Hemant Nimbalkar said the case had been filed against unnamed persons for sexual harassment, illegal confinement and forcefully attempting to disrobe.
Police officers have been sifting through footage from at least 45 CCTV cameras in the city centre where hundreds of revellers had gathered to celebrate the new year. One video shows two men molesting a woman as she walks down a secluded lane in a residential area late at night. Senior police official Ajay Hilori, said: “We have registered a first information report and started investigating.”
The video clip, which has not been independently verified, shows the driver of a scooter dismounting to grab the woman and drag her towards the vehicle, overcoming her struggles to get away. The other man on the scooter also joins the skirmish, but the clip ends with the attacker throwing the woman to the ground before getting on to the vehicle to flee. Some other people can be glimpsed at one end of the lane, but no one tries to intervene and stop the attack. The woman in the clip, broadcast by several television channels, has not made a complaint, Mr Hilori said.
Women in India are often reluctant to report such assaults for fear of being stigmatised by friends and relatives, although sex crimes are common, with more than 34,000 rapes reported last year, figures from the National Crime Record Bureau show. India has been shamed in the past by shocking levels of sexual assault against women, most notably in December 2012 when a student was gangraped on a bus in New Delhi and died of her injuries.
However, Bengaluru, India’s IT hub in the southern state of Karnataka, is home to many well- educated professionals and is widely regarded as safer for women than New Delhi, which is often labelled the country’s rape capital for the many sex crimes there.
Indians took to social media to condemn the latest incident, dubbed “night of horror”.
“#bangaloremolestation only shows how casual it is to molest women” tweeted Falguni Vasavada-Oza. “How easy it is to grope! How vulnerable is safety! How deep is (d) hierarchy.”
Video footage circulated on social media showed women screaming for help.
The attacks in Bangalore have been compared with last year’s mass sexual assaults at New Year’s celebrations in Cologne, Germany, where police were also accused of losing control.
‘ The police teams are working, we are sure we will catch the culprits Praveen Sood police commissioner of Bengaluru