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Girl killed while fleeing eve-teasers

A Madras college student, Sarika Shah, died last night following injuries sustained when she sustained head injuries after a gang of eve-teasers chased her last week.

Shah, a second-year student of the graduate management course at Ethiraj College in the city, died at a private hospital where she was in coma ever since sustaining head injuries on July 16 while on her way home from college.

It was considered an accident till witnesses claimed that a gang of eve-teasers had actually chased her in an autorickhaw and made a grab at her, due to which she lost her balance and fell on the road, sustaining head injuries.

According to the police, the circumstances of the assault are not clear. The Egmore police have registered a case of murder but none of the gang members has been arrested.

Of late, gangs of eve-teasers, roaming about in two-wheelers, autos and four- wheelers, have become a common sight at Egmore, Nungambakkam and other areas where several women's colleges are located. These gangs honk, sing suggestive songs from Tamil or Hindi films and make lewd gestures and comments, targetting girls at the entrances of colleges and at bus stops.

Women students staying in a nearby hostel at Egmore, said they had often been targets of eve-teasers. They said eve-teasers loved to scare women riding two-wheelers, whizzing past them in their vehicles, causing them to panic and even suffer accidents.

The college authorities, the women said, said that since the incidents happened outside college premises, they would not take responsibility for it. A professor from Ethiraj College, when quizzed about it, said the same thing, maintaining, though, that at the same time the management was doing its best to protect the interests of the students.

UNI

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