Woman comes to husband's aid, thrashes men in busy street

In a display of courage, a woman in Meerut took on a group of attackers single-handedly as they assaulted her husband after hitting the couple’s bike with their car in a busy street while no one came forward to help her.

The incident, which took place on Tuesday, came to light as photographs and video of the incident were aired following which one of the youths, who attacked the couple, was arrested by the police on Friday.

According to Superintendent of Police Om Prakash, the incident occurred at ‘kacheri pul’ area when a Santro car hit the bike of the woman and her husband.

According to the woman, the youths who were in the car alighted and started assaulting the woman’s husband following which she tried to resist the attackers by showering them with blows.

The woman said that she and her husband sought help from the people present at the scene but no one came forward.

The Samajwadi Party said they did not receive any complaint from the woman, but one of the accused, Ankit, a resident of village Bana in Mawana, has been arrested following a complaint from a home guard Babu Ram, who was an eyewitness.

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Ankit has been booked under   sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the Indian Penal Code and efforts are on to nab the other accused, he said.

The SP said police were trying to get in touch with the victim. He said that Ankit had blamed the woman for starting the fight after the couple’s bike was hit by their car.

Meanwhile, the brazen attack on the woman and the apparent apathy of onlookers drew flak from various quarters. The opposition cited the incident to launch a fresh attack on the Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pardesh.

Congress leader Manish Tewari said it reflected that the law and order situation has “broken down” in the state due to “complete administrative apathy of the SP govt” and “polarisation agenda” of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

National Commission for Women’s member Nirmala Samant said the incident was “very shocking”, especially as bystanders did not come to help the woman “who was all alone and giving a fight”.

“It is the sense of wisdom that every human being should show at a time of need and help the woman. Very shocking to see the bystanders behaving in this manner,” she said.