NEW DELHI: Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson Swati Maliwal on Thursday said she will continue to inspect the national capital's roads after she was allegedly molested by a drunk man while carrying out an inspection.
Maliwal alleged that she was "molested" and "dragged by a car" for several meters near the AIIMS in the wee hours of Thursday when she was out to inspect the dark spots of the national capital.
"I am traumatized after the incident but we are not among those who sit in Air Conditions. We will continue to keep inspecting every road of the city whether it is day or night," the DCW chief said.
A man, in an inebriated condition, had stopped his car next to the DCW chief and asked her to get inside the car. When Maliwal refused, the accused initially went away but then returned and repeated his actions.
"He started making lewd gestures towards me. When I approached him to reprimand him, he made a vulgar gesture towards me. When I tried to catch hold of him he rolled the window due to which my hand got stuck. He then pushed the accelerator and dragged me for several meters with the car," Maliwal said in a video message.
The police registered an FIR under the relevant sections of law and arrested the accused.
"I kept screaming..my team members who were at a distance also started yelling and then he let me go after I was dragged for some metres. It was God's grace that I was not hurt, otherwise, I would have met the same fate as 20-year-old Anjali," Maliwal said, adding if a women's commission chief isn’t safe in Delhi, one can imagine how unsafe Delhi is for women.
The DCW chief had gone out on inspection in the backdrop of the Kanjhawala hit-and-run case where Anjali Singh was hit and dragged on underneath a car for several kilometres. She was found dead and mutilated on a road in the national capital on the first day of this year.
"It is after this horrific incident, I decided to inspect the condition of the safety of women during nighttime," Maliwal said. She visited several places near Kanjhawala, Munirka, Mundka, and Hauz Khas to observe dark spots and seek police deployment and said the Commission will be issuing notices to concerned authorities for the same.