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"On any festival, be it Chhath or Deepawali, a jewelry-laden 16-year-old girl can now step out on a scooty at midnight on Uttar Pradesh's roads without any fear".
This is what Union Home Minister Amit Shah said at a rally in UP in October 2021.
Cut to 31 July, 2024. This is what happened.
As heavy rains lashed Lucknow, a couple tried to wade through water on the inundated underpass near the city's famous Taj Hotel, when they were accosted by a mob of men. The men, mostly in their 20s, surrounded the couple and splashed water on them, making it impossible for them to pass through. But the couple's ordeal didn't stop there.
The rider lost balance and the female who was riding pillion, fell off the two-wheeler and on to the water. Soon the mob of men began targeting her and at one point, one of the hooligans allegedly touched the woman inappropriately while she was trying to escape.
A 26-second video of the entire incident has gone viral and sparked outrage, especially as it all happened in the heart of the city, barely 2 km from the official residence of UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
The Quint tracked down the motorist in the viral video. A UPSC aspirant, he says he never saw this coming. "We were suddenly surrounded from all sides. I confronted them, tried to explain and even requested them with folded hands to not harass us. A mediaperson even shouted at the hooligans, but it didn't have much effect on them. The boy who groped my friend even looked into the camera which was recording the incident," the motorist said.
The duo later alerted the police.
"The police team reached 15-20 minutes after I alerted police on 112 and my friend dialed 1912 (women's helpline) informing them about the hooliganism and the harassment," he said.
UP Police Charges Accused of Spreading Communicable Diseases, No Mention of Groping
With the video going viral on social media, UP Police acted and registered an FIR, but only to be scrutinised yet again. Curiously, the FIR registered on behalf of police claimed that contaminated rainwater was being thrown on commuters, which could be a source of communicable diseases. The official complaint in the FIR has no mention of the harassment that the commuters, especially the woman, had to face.
An FIR was registered under section 191 (2) (rioting), 3(5), 272 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and 285 (Danger or obstruction in public way) of the Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS).
The FIR registered under sections that are considered "weaker" put the UP Police once again under the scanner.
However, better sense prevailed after social media criticism and the police added section 74 (Assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the BNS to the existing FIR.
CM Singles Out Names of Two Suspects in the UP Assembly
With the incident drawing a great deal of media attention, heads have rolled in the Lucknow police. UP government has removed DCP Lucknow East Prabal Pratap Singh, ADCP Amit Kumawat, and ACP (Gomtinagar) Anshu Jain from their positions with immediate effect. Additionally, Gomtinagar Inspector Deepak Kumar Pandey, Samtamulak Chowki In-charge Rishi Vivek, Inspector Kapil Kumar, Constable Dharamveer, and Constable Virendra Kumar have been suspended.
With the Opposition targeting the government over the incident, UP CM Yogi Adityanath made a statement regarding it in the state assembly on Thursday. He singled out names of two suspects of the four arrested at that time.
"I have the list of the arrested accused. First is Pawan Yadav, second one is Mohammad Arbaaz. These are people from "Sadbhavana" community. We will run Sadbhavna Express for them. Wait and watch we will run "bullet" train for them," CM Adityanath said.
It is pertinent to mention here that at the time he made his statement in the assembly, four suspects had been arrested in the case: Pawan Yadav, Sunil Kumar Bari, Viraj Sahu and Mohammed Arbaaz. Later in the day, 12 more suspects - Sunil, Jaikishan, Arjun Agrahari, Ratan Gupta, Krishnakant Gupta, Aman Gupta, Anil Kumar, Priyanshu Sharma, Ashish Singh, Vikas Bhandari, Manish Kumar Saroj, Abhishek Tiwari and Abhishek Sahu were arrested. Police is yet to trace and arrest the main accused who is seen groping the woman in the viral video.
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