Mob lynch attack in Khan Market скачать в хорошем качестве

Mob lynch attack in Khan Market

Chills run down my spine as I write this, forced to relive the moments which have changed my life. As a woman who has grown up in this city over the last three decades, I always considered Delhi to be my home. Today, I no longer feel safe in Delhi, a city whose people I foolishly thought I understood despite its worsening reputation. However, this story needs to be told. So here goes: My husband, his friend who was visiting us, and I were in Khan Market. We were showing our friend around and decided to stop for a bite to eat. As we were looking for parking, my husband spotted a slot, and got out of the car to manage traffic behind me, while I reversed into the parking spot with the parking attendant’s help. While he requested the cars behind to wait for a minute, the impatient driver of the car he was standing in front of got enraged at being made to wait, accelerated and nudged his car into my husband’s legs. Losing his balance, my husband fell onto the road. Following this, there was a heated exchange between my husband and the driver resulting in the driver calling out to some people standing around, some mechanics and a few other men arriving on the spot. Seeing the unsavoury crowd build up, I was concerned about our safety and asked my husband to get into the car to leave asap. As he got into the car, we found ourselves suddenly surrounded by at least 10-15 people, who were getting pretty aggressive. The scene was one of building aggression, with people yelling at us in raised voices. Even as my husband tried to tell them we were leaving, and I started indicating to get them to move aside and inching the car forward, the driver (who was an employee of one of the car repair shops and the main accused in this incident) suddenly appeared running onto my right side, lunged at the windscreen with a metal rod, shattering it. Thankfully the laminated glass held. He then proceeded to smash the rear windscreen, resulting in shattered glass all over my husband who was sitting in the back seat, now exposed to the mob, which was only growing in number and getting more and more hostile. We were terrified by now. With trembling hands, I clung onto the steering wheel, panicking, looking to get out of there as quickly as possible; soon realizing the futility of that effort as the narrow lane was clogged with cars and pedestrians. The mob, which was now easily 70-100 people strong, managed to accost us right outside the police chowki, jamming our car between two cars so we were trapped and couldn’t go anywhere. And then the mob unleashed its fury! Metal rods, cricket bats, wicket stumps, all raining down on the car, in an attempt to break the windows and drag us out and beat us up…and god knows what more. Thankfully, the jagged glass ends of the rear windscreen prevented anyone from crawling in. There were people screaming and shoving rods into the back seat, trying to stab and impale my husband. The police, who were also present at the site throughout this incident, then proceeded to take more than 30-45 minutes to control the mob. They were shaking our car violently, trying to overturn it, and we even heard them shouting to each another to burn the car! Shaking and shivering in our shoes, we frantically made calls to whoever we thought could help, including the police. Finally, our lawyer friend was able to arrive on the scene and control the situation, enabling us to get out of the car safely.The trauma hasn’t left us for a moment since the incident. Although an FIR was registered against the main accused by the Sub Inspector of the chowki, we later learnt that he was arrested only to be let off on bail the next day. We also learnt that the Indian Penal Code sections mentioned in the FIR were heavily diluted and not reflective of the complaint lodged by us. We haven't even received the CCTV footage of the incident yet, despite many requests. Our police force seems to have made its peace with the gunda raaj that runs this city, holding all of us hostage. This is the experience of India which our foreigner friend takes back, who had to cut short his visit, and is currently undergoing treatment for PTSD. A lovely day spent sightseeing, admiring the temples, tombs and forts of Delhi, has turned into the worst day of his life. Despite many requests for the CCTV footage, the local police resisted sharing it with us. Upon filing an RTI as per which they were to provide footage from all cameras, they finally shared footage from only three cameras (which is what is seen in this story). They have made a statement to the Magistrate that the rest has been destroyed. This case has since been escalated and moved to the crime branch. We, as victims, hope to see this investigation move along and all the perpetrators arrested as well as charged with sections that reflect the seriousness of the crime they committed - of gathering a mob and attempting to murder us in cold blood!