gurgaon

Updated: Jun 21, 2017 10:03 IST

All Sanah and Ruchika (names changed to protect identity) wanted to do was have a good time after a gruelling day. So the two friends, both in their twenties, stopped by the bustling Mehrauli-Gurgaon road on Friday evening.

What followed was a nightmare they would remember their entire life with dread.

As visiting a pub would have burnt a hole in their pockets, Sanah and Ruchika decided to buy a bottle of liquor from a neighbourhood wine shop and head back to their apartment near the MG Road metro station. “It was around 10-10.30 pm. The shopkeeper gave us what we asked for with an extremely sleazy look. Then he clearly told us what was on his mind,” Sanah, a Young India fellow, told HT. Their ordeal had just begun.

As the two friends stayed nearby, they decided to walk back home. MG Road – a stretch lined by a dozen malls – was bustling with ice-cream vendors and autorickshaw drivers, among others. “But there were no women around. Not a single policeman was in sight either,” said Sanah.

Just then, somebody shouted: Kitna leti hain (How much do you charge)? The women responded by quickening their pace.

Their tormenters, however, could not be ignored in this manner.

“Two men ran towards us. ‘How much do you charge?’ they asked multiple times. It was then that we decided to take an autorickshaw and get the hell out of there,” said Sanah, who has also shared an account of the harrowing episode on Facebook. “They first followed us till the autorickshaw, and then started groping us. Their hands were everywhere.”

Nobody, including the autorickshaw driver, came to their aid. “He wasn’t exactly empathetic. Even after we started off for home, the driver kept sniggering under his breath,” she added.

The experience left the two feeling shocked, angry and helpless. “They touched my breast. My friend was completely shattered. At that time, we just wanted to run away,” an angry Sanah told HT. She, however, mustered the courage to file an FIR at the Sonepat police station later on Monday night.

“We don’t leave our college campus most of the time. The incident occurred when we had gone to Gurgaon for two days. So we thought it best to file a complaint with the police,” the student said.

Sanah said she dialled the women’s helpline number a couple of times on Sunday, but received no response. She then called 100, only to have the woman on the other side give her another number to dial. That didn’t work either.

Inspector Rishikant, SHO of the Sonepat police station, said Sanah filed the complaint around 8 pm on Monday. “Instead of filing a zero FIR and delaying the case, we registered an FIR under sections 354-A (sexual harassment), 354-B (assault or use of criminal force with intent to disrobe) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. We will send our team to the spot soon and launch an investigation,” he added.

Rishikant said his team would examine the CCTV footage and ask the complainant to help them draw a sketch of the culprits.

This incident comes a week after a video showing women beating up an alleged molester with sandals on MG Road went viral on the social media. A fashion designer was molested at the Iffco Chowk metro station while returning from work last Tuesday.