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The Delhi police were facing renewed scrutiny after three female journalists and an activist alleged they were molested by male officers during protests demanding the ouster of India’s chief election commissioner.
The allegations came after the police used force against protesters in the heart of the capital, where violent scenes continued to play out as the demonstrations continued for the fourth day on Monday.
The police acknowledged the complaints on Sunday but didn’t file a formal case, triggering a separate sit-in protest by dozens of journalists.
Thousands of people have been taking to the streets in Delhi and Mumbai since Friday to demand the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar over accusations that the election commission under him manipulated voter rolls on a large scale to benefit prime minister Narendra Modi‘s BJP party.
The protesters have charged that a nationwide exercise to revise electoral rolls has disenfranchised millions of eligible voters on spurious grounds to the benefit of the ruling party.
The election commission and the ruling party have both denied the allegations.
On Monday, several of the journalists protesting against sexual misconduct by police officers were detained.
They included one of the complainants, an independent journalist who had published videos alleging that a senior officer groped her. She was filming police detaining protesters, including student leader Neha Bora, when the officer inappropriately touched her, the journalist alleged.
“Around 3 pm on 3 October, near Kerala House, I was recording Neha when I asked why they were detaining her because there was no female police officer there,” the complainant told Newslaundry, explaining that was when the officer “inappropriately touched me”.
“I immediately asked him, ‘Why did you do this?’ Then he left and some female constable came to stop me.”
Another female journalist said she was rubbed against by a policeman, according to the Indian Express.
“I was recording the detention of Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan when I felt someone touching my back,” she alleged, referring to two prominent political activists involved with the protests. She said she turned to find an officer “standing very close” to her. When she confronted the officer, according to the complaint, he allegedly dismissed her claim.
The police acknowledged the complaints of “sexual harassment” by the journalists, transferred them to the Crime Branch for a “fair and impartial enquiry”, recorded statements, and said CCTV footage would be examined.
The independent journalist broke down as she accused the police of beating her during her forceful detention on Monday.
“We’ve been camping outside the police station the entire night,” she said in a video. “We wanted to know when my complaint would be registered, but they made us wait and then began thrashing us.”
The Press Club of India condemned the alleged misconduct and demanded immediate action against the accused officers.
The club said it was “shocked and dismayed” by the treatment of journalists in the capital.
“Behaviour of this kind cannot be normalised in a democracy. Journalists must be allowed to work freely, without fear, and document those who gather to raise various issues,” it said in a statement.
Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition, criticised the police for not registering a case despite the protest by the journalists.
“Cameras were snatched, journalists were dragged. And this isn’t the first time — we’ve seen video evidence before of police officers engaging in disgusting misconduct with women,” he said. “Women across Delhi, students, are gripped by fear for their safety, staging satyagraha, but the very police responsible for protecting women are raising hands against them.”
DIGIPUB News India Foundation, which represents digital news outlets, independent journalists and commentators, described the alleged sexual assault incidents as “extremely shameful and completely unacceptable”.
It demanded the immediate suspension of the accused officers and an independent investigation into the incidents. It called the incidents an attack on democracy, press freedom and the dignity of women.
The protests are likely to intensify as an alliance of opposition parties plans to launch demonstrations to “save democracy” with a march to the election commission’s office on Tuesday.
The Cockroach Janta Party, a youth-led movement which forced the resignation of India’s education minister earlier this year, meanwhile started protests in the financial hub of Mumbai and announced plans for a major rally in the national capital on 10 October.
The protesters received a shot in the arm on Monday as the Supreme Court declared that it had never approved controversial changes to a voter registration form and would examine who authorised them.
Chief Justice Surya Kant made the remarks while hearing petitions challenging the functioning of the chief election commissioner.
The dispute concerns Form 6, the application used by people seeking to register to vote. The election commission’s online version of the form was changed to ask applicants whether they or their parents appeared on electoral rolls during the last Special Intensive Revision, a nationwide exercise to verify and update voter lists.
The additional questions were introduced even though the statutory version of the form had not been formally amended, prompting two election commissioners to raise objections and describe the change as “illegal” and “unauthorised”.
In a 26 September statement, the election commission said the top court had upheld the additional declaration attached to Form 6 for the revision exercise.
The court then issued notice seeking an explanation from the commissioners but refused to pass an interim order to suspend Mr Kumar.
Source: www.independent.co.uk
