"If a woman in Delhi is not safe in a five-star hotel with her parents, what will happen to a woman by herself in the streets?" This is what a young Indian-origin American girl asked Delhi Police in a complaint against a youth who allegedly molested her in a spa of a five-star hotel in south Delhi's Vasant Vihar on last Friday.
"The accused Sanjay, a salon employee in the hotel, was arrested on Tuesday on her complaint and a case of outraging the modesty of woman was slapped against him," Chhaya Sharma, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South), told PTI.
The victim said in her complaint, "If action that is more stringent was taken in response to crimes against women, this would be a deterrent for men like these to perform a shameful act like this."
The victim alleged that the hotel authorities were not sensitive to her complaint and refused to approach police following which she herself decided to do so.
The hotel officials were not available for comment. Retelling the incident to end a 'powerfully destructive cycle of silence which hurts women all around the world and is especially prevalent here in Delhi', she said she had checked into the hotel along with her parents on January 12.
The next day, she claimed, she along with her mother went to the Spa and while going for a head massage, she was taken to a separate room although there were five other available chairs in the room where her mother was.
The victim claimed she was having a terrible headache and was exhausted and the therapist apparently pressed certain nerves so that she would go to sleep.
When she woke up, she alleged, she found the salon employee molesting her and she immediately reported the matter to the lobby manager.
She alleged that they did not see any action taken by the hotel management instead they passed the blame on to Spa, saying it was an outsourced division.
The victim also claimed that she approached one of the top officials of the hotel and asked to report the incident to police but they told her that action was taken by firing the accused.
She also asked police to take action against the hotel for not taking any concrete legal action against the concerned employee.