Mob heckles Manipuri playwright
Higher-ups in the police department are yet to take action against a traffic police constable, who joined a mob in heckling and jeering at a Manipuri playwright, Swar Thouna-ojam, instead of helping her in times of distress in the city.
The law and order police have filed a criminal complaint against the traffic police constable, but no further disciplinary action has been taken. Bengaluru’s disgrace unfolded on Wednesday, when Thounaojam, a theatre artist and playwright, was waiting at the DVJ road traffic junction when a two-wheeler rider crashed into her car around 7 pm. When she confronted the rider, he started abusing her in Kannada. The others too supported the rider.
Ms Thounaojam ran to a traffic constable, identified as Krishnamurthy attached to the Basavanagudi police station. Instead of helping her, the constable grabbed her shoulder and pushed her. “I tried to explain to hi-m that the rider was at fa-ult. But the constable rep-lied, ‘Kannada baralla’, and told me that I don’t belong here,” she said. She did not want let go of the rider easily, and stopped him from leaving the spot. But the policeman dragged her to the side and punched her in the right arm. She took out her mobile phone and started taking photos of the motorcycle rider. Her ord-eal turned worse, as the mob pulled at her clothes and jeered at her. One of those from the crowd rem-oved his shirt, while another, wearing a lungi, expo-sed himself, she said. In the melee, the rider escaped. Her ordeal lasted 15 minutes, and the crowd melted only when a patrol vehicle arrived at the scene.
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