Here I am in a safer and less discriminated country, oblivious of the news that was hitting India's newstands till this morning. My heart goes out to the victim, her parents, her family and her friends. And memories that I am happy to leave behind come back to me.
I have been there too in unsafe Delhi.And I have been mugged. And probably would have been raped and murdered too. If the good Lord were not watching over me. The Delhi police certainly were not. This incident is to bring to light how inept, corrupt and ineffective the Delhi police is.
At 8 p.m. one August night, 9 years ago.on Mehrauli Badarpur Road, our driver left the car to go look for my colleague's husband. My colleague was also in the car with me. A PCR van went by. Passers by went by. We were certainly not alone. Suddenly, there were 4 men who demanded the car door be opened. Unfortunately, my driver had wound down the window a bit to let a little air in. While we watched, at first indignant and then horrified, one of them slid his hand in and opened the door. The keys were also in the car and two men sat in the front while two others stood by our doors either to jump in or throw us out - we will never know. The car alarm had gone off when the door was opened and the auto lock activated. Obviously new to technology, they decided to split with the car keys and turning around to snatch my cell phone that was hanging from my neck. A crowd had gathered but none followed the fleeing miscreants. All this happned in about a couple of minutes. I had no time to register anything but the color of one of the men's shirt.
The first thing I did was use my collegue's phone to call the cops, who promised to be there in minutes. The nearest police station was half a kilometer away. I made the next call to my husband to bring the duplicate key set. My husband arrived and we waited and waited for about an hour. The crowd started thinning away. And we decided it was unsafe to stay there any longer. We drove to the Police Station and what followed was almost as horrifying as the incident itself. The inspector on duty started inquisitioning me as if I were the culprit, making me repeat my story at least a dozen times. I started getting annoyed and my husband warned me not to be rude. I asked the inspector if it would not be easy to track down the culprits since they had my cell phone. The inspector bragged that the culprits would be brought home. And began questioning me again. I snapped. And told him to lay off. And remember I was the victim.I told him if he was so sure of his success rate to get back my cell phone and car keys and let me go home. That funnily seemed to work and the next thing he was offering me a cold drink and let me go home
I went home exhausted. Home was a mere couple of kilometers away. Barely I had finished my dinner and there was a call from the police station. It was well past midnight now. Just to give people an idea of how long the inquisition at the police station took. He had detained a young boy and asked me to identify him. It was the wrong guy of course. And an innocent one at that. An inquisition followed again.
I was asked to pick up my FIR the next day. When I did, there was no mention of the theft. After having spoken to me a dozen times, he had just reported my car keys and phone missing!
Why he did so I cannot imagine except that maybe he was in cahoots with the culprits? I never recovered the keys or my phone.
Delhi is not only unsafe from criminals but also cursed with insensitive and inept police officers.
What if the victim of the gang rape or her friend had dialed the police? Would they have come and prevented the crime? 9.9 to 10 they would not. Maybe they did?
I have been there too in unsafe Delhi.And I have been mugged. And probably would have been raped and murdered too. If the good Lord were not watching over me. The Delhi police certainly were not. This incident is to bring to light how inept, corrupt and ineffective the Delhi police is.
At 8 p.m. one August night, 9 years ago.on Mehrauli Badarpur Road, our driver left the car to go look for my colleague's husband. My colleague was also in the car with me. A PCR van went by. Passers by went by. We were certainly not alone. Suddenly, there were 4 men who demanded the car door be opened. Unfortunately, my driver had wound down the window a bit to let a little air in. While we watched, at first indignant and then horrified, one of them slid his hand in and opened the door. The keys were also in the car and two men sat in the front while two others stood by our doors either to jump in or throw us out - we will never know. The car alarm had gone off when the door was opened and the auto lock activated. Obviously new to technology, they decided to split with the car keys and turning around to snatch my cell phone that was hanging from my neck. A crowd had gathered but none followed the fleeing miscreants. All this happned in about a couple of minutes. I had no time to register anything but the color of one of the men's shirt.
The first thing I did was use my collegue's phone to call the cops, who promised to be there in minutes. The nearest police station was half a kilometer away. I made the next call to my husband to bring the duplicate key set. My husband arrived and we waited and waited for about an hour. The crowd started thinning away. And we decided it was unsafe to stay there any longer. We drove to the Police Station and what followed was almost as horrifying as the incident itself. The inspector on duty started inquisitioning me as if I were the culprit, making me repeat my story at least a dozen times. I started getting annoyed and my husband warned me not to be rude. I asked the inspector if it would not be easy to track down the culprits since they had my cell phone. The inspector bragged that the culprits would be brought home. And began questioning me again. I snapped. And told him to lay off. And remember I was the victim.I told him if he was so sure of his success rate to get back my cell phone and car keys and let me go home. That funnily seemed to work and the next thing he was offering me a cold drink and let me go home
I went home exhausted. Home was a mere couple of kilometers away. Barely I had finished my dinner and there was a call from the police station. It was well past midnight now. Just to give people an idea of how long the inquisition at the police station took. He had detained a young boy and asked me to identify him. It was the wrong guy of course. And an innocent one at that. An inquisition followed again.
I was asked to pick up my FIR the next day. When I did, there was no mention of the theft. After having spoken to me a dozen times, he had just reported my car keys and phone missing!
Why he did so I cannot imagine except that maybe he was in cahoots with the culprits? I never recovered the keys or my phone.
Delhi is not only unsafe from criminals but also cursed with insensitive and inept police officers.
What if the victim of the gang rape or her friend had dialed the police? Would they have come and prevented the crime? 9.9 to 10 they would not. Maybe they did?
