Saravjeet Singh, a 28-year-old Delhi resident, who was alleged as an “eve- teaser” and a “pervert” by Jasleen Kaur, a former St. Stephens College student, has been acquitted of all the charges that were put against him. He posted about the same yesterday on his Facebook profile.

The Verdict is out. I am ACQUITTED!I wish to thank Waheguru ji for keeping His eye on me, and all of you for your… Sarvjeet Singh Bedi ಅವರಿಂದ ಈ ದಿನದಂದು ಪೋಸ್ಟ್ ಮಾಡಲಾಗಿದೆ ಗುರುವಾರ, ಅಕ್ಟೋಬರ್ 24, 2019

The case

Jasleen Kaur, a former St. Stephens College student, shared a Facebook post where she accused Saravjeet of verbally harassing her at the Tilak Nagar traffic signal in West Delhi; the incident made national headlines.

Popular Indian websites, social media pages and news outlets saw a potential viral story and they published the photo of the accused without even blurring his face and started publicly shaming him without cross-checking the facts. There was no evidence to support the claim: no video and certainly the photo didn’t show the man in a mood which could have substantiated the girl’s claim. He was publicly shamed in front of millions of people.

As soon as the news spread, the media channels called Saravjeet a “pervert” and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and actress Sonakshi Sinha, lauded the woman’s ‘bravery’.

Without making any delay, the Delhi Police arrested Saravjeet in a days time. However, before his arrest, Saravjeet had also put out his side of the story in the comment section of Jasleen’s Facebook post.

Talking about that fateful day Saravjeet told The Logical Indian, “She was a stranger to me, that day also there was a slight argument between us, I did not abuse her nor did I physically harm her.”

When asked about his “Jo bhi Karnaa hai karlo(do whatever you can)” statement, he said, he was going to leave the signal, when the woman started to take pictures he asked her why she was doing it, to which she responded by saying that she will get the cops to Sarvjeet’s place.

“I had nothing to say at that time to her, in a very reflex action, I just told her to do whatever she wants and left the place,” he added.

Soon after this, an eyewitness named Vishwajeet Singh came up in support of Saravjeet, and he vouched for his innocence.

The witness claimed that it was Jasleen, who had first started to abuse and misbehaved with Saravjeet verbally.

The wrongs media did

In 2016, the News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA) had also asked the national news channel Times Now to issue an apology and pay a fine for their reporting on Jasleen Kaur case. Arnab Goswami was the editor-in-chief of Times Now at that time.

The agency said that the channel reporting was “aggressive, intimidating, and browbeating style”. The order further noted that channel treated the accused as guilty, as reported by The First Post.

Actor Sonakshi Sinha, who had earlier backed Jasleen, also apologised to Sarvjeet.

Being a girl, gave the benefit of doubt to Jasleen, like many others! And like many others am embarrassed n let down! Apologies to the guy. — Sonakshi Sinha (@sonakshisinha) August 27, 2015

Times now employee apology

After the Print story, a former Times Now employee, who claims to have put out the story of the alleged Jasleen’s harassment case has now apologised (in a personal capacity) to Sarvjeet.

“I could not apologise to Sarvjeet earlier because I was working with the Times group then. Today, I could not stop myself and wrote to him,” he added.

The matter went to the Delhi court and after subsequent hearings, Singh was given a clean chit. It was also noted that Kaur did not attend a single hearing out of the 13 hearings happened on the case. Kaur’s father told the court that his daughter has left for Canada to study.

The Logical Indian Take

As now the court has acquitted Saravjeet Singh from the case, it is now the responsibility of media to cover the story of his acquittal. He had to go through mental harassment and also had difficulty finding a job. We at The Logical Indian remain unbiased on the case and didn’t become part of the media trial, understanding how there was no evidence to support what Jasleen Kaur was saying was false or true. Media is also to blame who reported the story without checking the facts. This was a case of mob justice and media trial. If this keeps happening, then we will become so cynical that we won’t believe a genuine victim. As finally Saravjeet Singh is proved not guilty, all the media who covered the story should apologise to him.

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