Muslim girl molested, beaten in public in India’s Madhya Pradesh

• Locals, govt officials surround police station to demand justice.
• Victim also demands justice and arrest of assaulters. 
• Incident comes after the harrowing Manipur incident.

In yet another incident of violence against women in India, a Muslim girl, a physiotherapist by profession, was molested and beaten up in the middle of a street by some men in the Ujjain city of Madhya Pradesh, Free Press Journal reported.

The harrowing incident took place when the girl was returning home after duty on Friday evening, drawing massive outrage from locals and government officials from the Muslim community.

As per the report, the police detained the two men involved in the attack; however, a video shared by the Madhya Pradesh Congress on Twitter showed the victim alleging five people attacked her.

She also claimed that one of the assaulters told her that “police is in my pocket”, while his mother was also involved in the matter.

A large number of locals,  including Noori Khan — a female member of the MP Congress and the state’s minorities rights body — gheraoed a police station on Saturday. 

They submitted a memorandum to the SP demanding strict action against the accused and demolition of their houses.

Meanwhile, the victim, who is hospitalised for her injuries sustained in the attack, said that a man named Hitesh Badwaya waylaid her and pulled her dupatta, according to the report.

“When she raised objection, Badwaya’s aide held her hands and the duo started beating her.”

As shown in the video shared by MP Congress, Noori Khan visited the hospital to inquire after the victim, who demanded justice and the arrest of the assaulters.

She told Khan that the assaulters also beat a man who stopped by in a bid to help her. The suspects later said that the man who came to “save me was my brother” and claimed that they attacked “me because of an enmity with him”, she added.

“All of the neighbours were looking. They would have killed me. He tore my clothes as well,” the victim said as she cried bitterly.

She said there were five people and a man “who had come naked told me that you deserve this”.

She said this man and the woman involved in the matter provoked the assaulters to “do the same as Manipur women with me”.

The victim further said neither media nor the police were doing anything to bring her justice.

The incident comes days after the Manipur incident surfaced, in which two women were gang-raped and paraded naked by a group of men.

Narendra Modi-led government of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India came under fire for failure to curb violence against women in Manipur and across the country.

Leaders across the globe registered their condemnation and negative reactions over the vile act in Manipur.

It may be noted that no significant action has been taken against the culprits of the Manipur incident.