Bengaluru: Molestation, assault and a rape attempt, all in one night!

Bengaluru: It was a night of horror for Sunil (24) and his 23-year-old female colleague Sapna (name changed) when they were brutally assaulted by two bike-borne men first, and later a group of 10 men who, besides assaulting Sunil and groping Sapna, tried to rape her.

Worse was the police’s reluctance in registering a complaint. Though the incident took place in the early hours of May 9 and a complaint was filed at noon the same day, the Jeevan Bima Nagar (JB Nagar) police were not willing to take cognisance of the complaint. They did register the complaint on May 16, but only after the police commissioner’s office ordered them to.

Around 2 am on May 9, Sunil and Sapna had gone to Empire Hotel on 80 Feet Road for dinner. “As we stepped out of the hotel and walked a few steps, two bike-borne men stopped their bike in front of us. The pillion rider right away started misbehaving with my friend. I tried to object, but the rider started beating me up mercilessly. They beat us up with whatever they got,” Sunil recalled with horror.

The nightmare did not end there. “As we reached near BSNL office on HAL Main Road, another gang with over 10 members intercepted us. They beat me up with sticks and bricks and dragged Sapna to a cricket ground nearby. I shouted for help and within minutes two men came and rescued Sapna,” Sunil said.

Sunil approached the JB Nagar police to file a complaint around noon on May 9, but he was sent away by the police without filing an FIR. “The policemen at the station told me that I would get a message on my mobile phone,” Sunil said.
But when he did not receive any confirmation of the complaint being registered, Sunil took to the Bengaluru City Police’s Facebook page to narrate the ordeal and to vent his anger against JB Nagar police for failing to register the complaint. After the post, the police commissioner’s office ordered the JB Nagar police to register the complaint. Eight long days after the horrific incident, the JB Nagar police called up the victim and registered the case.

Gross dereliction of duty by police
Additional Commissioner (East) Seemanth Kumar Singh admitted that there was a lapse on the part of JB Nagar police staff present at the station on May 9 and also on part of Inspector Hanumanth Bajantari, who did not follow up on the case and register a case.

“The police have acted based on the complaint. The department has taken up an inquiry seriously and all the station staff are being questioned. It was a sheer negligence on the part of JB Nagar inspector too who was not aware of the case till May 16. The inquiry is under way and strict action will be taken against those responsible for the delay in registering the complaint,” Mr Singh said.