After a 25-year old woman activist from West Bengal was gang-raped in April near the Tikri border during the ongoing fake farmer’s protest, another incident of harassment and misconduct has disturbingly emerged from the same protest site. A netizen named Shivani Dhillon took to Twitter to share the plight of a women nursing assistant, who went to the protest site, inspired by a few of the protestors but endured a harrowing time where she was harassed constantly.
“Shocking news!!! Molestation and rape incident reported from Tikri Border. Punjabi nursing assistant molested and raped by criminal elements in disguise as farmers. Why no one is reporting and taking note. A detailed story on molestation & rape in this thread. Must read,” tweeted Shivani whilst sharing the post-thread of the nursing assistant.
https://twitter.com/shivani_sikh/status/1400816121603710990?s=20
The woman went to the Tikri Border in April, earlier this year after being inspired by one Dr Swaiman Singh, who eventually turned out to be an enabler of the harassment.
“This is my story of being harassed at @Sriversheartusa and @dr_swaiman_singh acting as an enabler. I had heard Dr. Singh’s views on vaccinations and seen videos of his work, and since I was passionate to create awareness about Covid and vaccinations amongst protestors sitting at Tikri Border, I decided to volunteer in this organisation in April’21,” said the women.
Lewd comments were passed on the woman by a volunteer who linked/insinuated her with another volunteer in a romantic/sexual relation. However, when the lady protested and gave an earful to the two and tried to complain to an uncle nearby, the alleged volunteers ganged up on the latter and silenced the girl.
When the victim went to Dr Singh to complain about the behaviour of the two individuals, he refused to help her citing, ‘this wasn’t America’ and that those volunteers had been here for 4-5 months, while she had been at the protest site for only 2-3 days.
“The next day the first thing I went to Dr Singh and told him that I needed to talk to him about something imp. We had a chat in the noon where I told him that his volunteers made me uncomfortable. To which his reaction was – I cannot take care of your safety. That he will leave me back to Singhu and will call me when the women doctors were here. That this wasn’t America etc,” the women noted her in post.
https://twitter.com/shivani_sikh/status/1400820237193256968
Previously reported by TFI, a 25-year old women activist hailing from West Bengal had come to participate in farmers’ protest at the Delhi-Haryana Tikri border. She reached the protest site in mid-April and since then was subjected to sexual assault on more than one occasion. Her father filed an FIR but the young woman succumbed to death on April 30 after contracting coronavirus. The main perpetrators of the crime are alleged to be two AAP leaders who masterminded the entire incident.
According to a report by the New Indian Express, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had directed the Superintendent of Police, Jhajjar in Haryana, to submit a factual report on the rape and subsequent death of the woman.
With regular news of women being mistreated and manhandled at the protest site coming out in the open, it is high time that the government steps in and clears the protest site, root and square.