BENGALURU:“It took me more than a day to recover from the shock. I am still scared to step out of the house. Children play in the area and the lack of safety for women is scary,” said the woman who was molested by chain-snatchers on Thursday evening when she was on her way to her house at BEML Layout in RR Nagar.
The already traumatised woman had a harrowing experience when she went to the lodge a complaint with the jurisdictional police. “When I went to the police station, two other women, were waiting to file complaints as they were also attacked by the robbers in a span of half an hour. The police, after taking a complaint, told us not to share information about the attacks to the media as it will help the accused escape. I insisted that the police increase patrolling in the area and then they told me that the staff were busy with Prime Minister Modi’s rally which was held in Kengeri.”
On Thursday, two bike-borne men tried to snatch the woman’s chain. When she fought back, they stopped the bike, got down and attacked her repeatedly and molested her. The entire incident was captured on a CCTV camera installed in a neighbour’s house.
The victim said, “Two other women had been attacked around 5.15 pm, some time before the robbers arrived near my house. I was the third one to be targeted. My female friend ran to call neighbours and also threw a stone at them. As I hit the pillion rider with a racket, they came back after parking the bike in the middle of the road and pushed me towards an electricity pole. One of them slapped me repeatedly while the other tried to pull my trousers. I was scared and nervous. Though I fought back, they escaped with my chain worth `2 lakh.”
We have clues about the culprits, says DCP
A woman was molested and her chain snatched by two bike-borne men at BEML Layout on Thursday. When she insisted that the police increase patrolling in the area, they told her that the staff were busy with Prime Minister Modi’s rally which was held in Kengeri, she said.When Express spoke to Shiva Reddy, the inspector of RR Nagar, he confirmed that all staff were deputed for the PM’s rally and that the miscreants took advantage of this to strike. He said three chain-snatching cases were reported on that day.
Ravi D Channannanavar, DCP-West, said, “After analysing the CCTV footage we have added a section of outraging the modesty of women to the complaint. We have clues about the culprits and arrests will be made soon.”The Karnataka High Court had recently pulled up the police department and observed that the police could not claim election-related duties as a reason for regular work being affected.