Bangalore witnesses mass molestation on New Year eve

At best police were ineffective, at worst they were idle bystanders.

Activists, women groups and rights bodies dubbed the reactions of politicians to the incidents as misogynistic and demanded immediate action against the perpetrators of the crime.

Echoing the home minister’s views, Azmi said, “Partying late night in half attire, blindly following western culture, has never been our culture”.

City police commissioner Praveen Sood told DH, “Based on evidence provided by a citizen, a suo motu case was taken up and a FIR registered”. Maharashtra’s Samajwadi Prarty MLA Abu Azmi pitched in from Mumbai, likening women who ventured into such areas to sugar attracting ants.

Actor Farhan Akhtar said, “Women should not dress like westerners because men dressed like westerners are molesters, says the man in the shirt.#oxy (deprived) morons”.

G Parmeshwara, the home minister for Karnataka state, appeared to brush aside the incident on Monday in comments to the news agency ANI.

Just when one thought that things for women will get better with each passing day, reports came out about women being molested in Bengaluru during New Year’s eve celebrations. When questioned about the shameful incident, Karnataka home minister G Parameshwara casually responded and said, “these kinds of things do happen”.

Meanwhile, the National Commission of Women (NCW) Chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam has come down heavily on the police and slammed Parameshwara’s remarks, demanding his resignation.

The incident of mass molestation reportedly occurred on December 31 midnight at Bengaluru’s MG Road and Brigade Road.

Police say they are now trawling through CCTV footage to see if they can identify any of the attackers. Women not covered in traditional costume will be molested; the state will criticise the victim’s apparel, not the criminal’s behaviour.

“[On] events like new year’s … there are women who are harassed or treated badly”, he said.

A year ago in Cologne, Germany, 513 sexual assault complaints were filed, with witnesses describing assailants as “dark-skinned” foreigners who raped, groped and robbed women in the main train station in the early hours of New Year’s Day.