Kalyani Nagar

Mukund Mahajan

Yerwada

Nitin Bhosle

At a time when the idea of privacy as a fundamental right is being debated in court, a disturbing case of moral policing has come to the fore in the apparently cosmopolitan area ofMembers of Goodwill Enclave IV barged in on a 22-year-old female tenant and her flatmate and harassed them for having invited a male friend over. Not only this, they eventually called the cops, who then allegedly assaulted the male friend.The 22-year-old, a writer by profession, had simply called her friend over on Tuesday for dinner and a screening of the latest episode of Game of Thrones. However, what looked to be an evening of harmless fun went horribly wrong right from the onset.The friend came over after 10 pm, and the watchman stopped him at the entrance. After arguing with him, the woman asked to meet with the society chairman. However, she had to go upstairs to drop off her cat, which was when the chairman came down, told her male friend that he was not allowed in the society and left.“I came back after taking my cat home and we waited for almost 20 minutes for the chairman to return — the watchman had said that he would. Finally, we decided to just head to my house, since we were hungry.Fifteen minutes later, three society members showed up at our door, none of whom was the chairman, and started screaming at us. We tried to explain our side of the story, but they refused to listen. They threatened to call the cops and sure enough, 10 minutes later, the police showed up,” said the woman.She added that two male cops entered the house and told her male friend that they were arresting him because of a complaint. While all of this was happening, the other cop was videotaping the incident.The woman’s male friend also tried to record what was happening for evidence, but the cops, after making threatening advances, made him delete the video. “By now, a few more society members had entered the house and starting casting aspersions about our characters,” said the woman.And, it didn’t end there. After over an hour of arguing, when everyone went downstairs, the two women went to their balcony in time to see a police van pull up, drag their friend out of his car and slap him. Another friend came by to try and mitigate what the situation was and he was threatened with arrest, even though he had never even set foot inside the society.“We have been living in this society for a month now and the watchman has constantly harassed every friend that has come home, irrespective of the time. We have all our papers in place and the broker had specifically mentioned that there were no restrictions on inviting friends. The caretaker of our flat has also told us that we could allow anyone in our flat as long as we don’t disturb the neighbours,” the woman lamented.She added, “After last night’s incident, my flatmate and I are genuinely scared for our safety. It is risky if male members of the society can just barge into our house after 12 midnight and harass us.”Senior police inspectorofpolice station, where the girls have given a written report of what transpired on Tuesday night, said, “We have spoken to the girls and will speak to the society members as well. There is no reason for the girls to feel unsafe. We have told them that they can get in touch with us whenever they need to.”While the chairman was unavailable to comment on the issue, another member of the society committee, who did not wish to be named, said, “There was an untoward incident in the society a while ago, after which we stopped tenants from having members of the opposite sex over to their house after 11pm. In this case, we had received several complaints from the neighbours regarding the odd hours that men showed up. We have not even received a no objection Certification (NoC) for the flat and have no idea who lives there. Obviously, we will take precaution. The cops were called because the guy refused to leave. The safety of the residents here is our primary concern. As long as the rules are followed we have absolutely no problem with the girls, as there are other single people living here, too.”Chairmanadded, “We have to look at everyone’s security, especially since lots of girls live here as paying guests. In this case, the neighbour had told the tenants not to have male friends over late at night, but they wouldn’t listen. So, the cops were called.”█ We have to look at everyone’s security, especially since lots of girls live here as paying guests. In this case, the neighbour had told the tenants not to have male friends over late at night, but they wouldn’t listen. So, the cops were called