Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Days after an Army officer and his fiancée were allegedly sexually and physically assaulted at Bhubaneswar’s Bharatpur Police Station, where they had gone to file a complaint about an attack by a group of men, videos of the incident have surfaced.
The video, accessed by India Today TV, shows the Army officer and his fiancee being encircled by a group of men. The men can be seen engaging in a heated argument, pushing the pair while shouting verbal abuses.
In the footage, the woman is heard saying, “I am speaking to the people who are trying to misbehave with me”. A man from the group responds, “No one is misbehaving with you”.
“Sir, I am not speaking with you. I am speaking with people who are misbehaving with me. It is my car, whether I show my legs or my hair, it is my prerogative,” the woman can be heard saying in Hindi.
One of the men then interrupts, saying, “Don’t show it to us, then”.
The woman then questions, “Who are you?” to which a man from the group responded saying, “If Mohan Majhi were here, would you show him the middle finger?” She replied that she doesn’t know who he is, to which the group shouts, “He is Odisha’s Prime Minister”.
As the argument escalates, one of the men tells the Army officer to make her understand. “This is not Delhi, explain to her,” the man says, as the officer tries to calm the situation and guide the woman away.
The men then accuse the woman of playing the “victim card” and warn her not to act overconfident. As the officer escorts the woman to their car, another video shows her standing with the door open when one of the men slams it shut.
The group hurled abuses and physically assaulted the officer, who tried to shield the woman.
The video ends with the woman stating that she will go to the police, to which one of the men sarcastically responds, “Arre ja” (go ahead).
After the incident, the woman and the officer reached the Bharatpur police station in Bhubaneswar where the woman claimed that she was sexually assaulted.
The woman, who was also arrested by the police, was granted bail by the Orissa High Court on September 19 considering the gravity of the allegations. Narrating her harrowing experience to the media, the woman said she was repeatedly kicked on her chest before a police inspector assaulted and also flashed her.
As the incident triggered nationwide outrage, Odisha Police suspended five officers, including the Inspector-in-charge of Bharatpur Police Station.