The shocking videos that recently surfaced on the social media platform have sparked a new kind of war in our society.
A Mumbai girl, named Megha Sharma was shown stripping down to her inner wears and pleading the cops that she won’t come with them to the police station. All she wanted was to get back to her apartment. But, was this the complete story behind why she did what she did?
So, why did she strip?
Video 1
It all began when Megha came down to the lobby of her residential building around 1.42 am. The moment she gets in the building and approaches the desk, she seems to get in a sort of fight with the security guard.
The CCTV footage that recorded the entire thing clearly showed her slapping the guard multiple times.
The guard too tried to fight back and even removed his shoe in order to hit the girl.
Further, he tries hard to drag the girl out of the building during which three men along with a dog enter the scene and try to separate the duo from fighting.
The footage ends here.
This scenario suggests that there was indeed something wrong, that happened between the guard and the girl. Which might be the reason that sparked the fight in the first place. However, it all became clear when she spoke to ANI yesterday and narrated her side of the story.
According to her, she had come down to ask the watchmen to kindly get a few cigarettes for her, which he refused. When she came down herself and saw 3-4 guards standing outside the gate, she asked if any of them could get her a smoke, she was denied again and instead, was given the number of a cigarette-shop owner.
Then, she went out and got herself a smoke but she also talked to the guard as to why could he not have asked one of the watchmen to go.
What was the reason she slapped the guard?
It was that moment when the guard threw a fit and went on to call her ‘characterless’. He also passed lewd comments on her attire. He even said, “We are not here to treat you like a princess.” Infuriated by this vile comment, she raised her hands against him.
Soon, after hearing the chaos, another watchman joined the argument. And started hurling abuses at her too. It was then that she dialed 100 and a team from Oshiwara police station arrived at the scene within 10 minutes.
#WATCH: Model Megha Sharma, who in a viral video was seen thrashing a security guard and sitting in protest when the police came to take her, narrates the chain of events which took place at the time of the incident. #Mumbai pic.twitter.com/iWvHHVH9Mu
— ANI (@ANI) October 30, 2018
Probably she thought that the cops would escort her to her flat, and teach the guard that it wasn’t a way that he supposed to speak with a girl. But what happened after police came to the scene, was not what she expected.
Firstly, the policemen came without any female constable and instead of helping her out, they started demanding that she should accompany them to the police station.
Everyone knows that according to the law, a female cannot be arrested or asked to come to the police station after 6 pm-6 a.m if there is no lady constable present.
Referring to the same clause, she asked the policemen to go back and that she will get down to the police station during daytime to lodge a formal complaint against the guard. But, the policemen remained adamant on their point and didn’t allow her to leave.
She immediately felt that she made a mistake by calling the cops.
Which was true to an extent. She started panicking and thinking what she could do to escape the whole thing and somehow get inside her apartment.
Thinking this, she entered the lift, but she couldn’t close the doors.
Also Read: Personal Things That Women Use Everyday As Defense To Avoid Sexual Assault
Video 2
That’s when the second video was made.
This video showed Megha, very scared and frightened, inside the lift, frantically arguing with the cops to get to her apartment.
But she didn’t succeed because of the policemen and security guard, who were standing across the elevator’s door, preventing it from closing.
Also Read: Why Hiring Women in India Is Still A Big Concern For Managers?
This raises the very basic question that were the policemen right, in terms of how they handled this situation?
They were supposed to help the girl and not freak her out. Right? Moreover, if they really wanted her to come to the police station and file the complaint instantly, they should have allowed her to go back to her flat and change into something more decent like the girl was saying.
Was this why she called the police?
So that they force and stop her from even closing the elevator doors by blocking it? I don’t think so.
Meanwhile, a million thoughts were crossing Megha’s mind.
She was terrified to imagine that those officers would take her somewhere else instead of a police station and rape her. She remembered the case that happened in Pune where cops raped a girl in name of taking her to the police station. This scared her even more, and she literally started begging and crying. But the policemen didn’t listen. It was certainly not right for them to stop her from going back to her apartment.
They still continued to block the lift and ask her to step out because she was the one who complained about the guard. The second video ended here.
Did You Read: Jio Bans Porn In India – Here Is What You Can Do To Deal With This Problem
Until this time, Megha was completely hopeless and she went blank. What she did next, made the third video which went viral for all the wrong reasons.
Video 3
The third video showed Megha stripping down to her inner wears, while constantly shouting that she is doing this so that all the men will leave her alone and she can go back to her apartment.
She yelled abused the guard, who yelled back the same, and got into a physical fight all over again, even after cops were there. However, her stripping brought back some sense in the minds of people there, and they finally left her alone. But only after the whole thing was recorded.
Finally, the commotion came to a halt, and she retreated back to her apartment.
There were even other residents who can be seen in the video, but as expected, they are doing nothing to help her at all.
Now that all the videos are viral and are getting mixed reactions from people.
Also Read: 15 Ridiculous Things Women Do In The Name Of Women Empowerment
Which of these actions taken by the Mumbai police are justified?
I don’t think they had any right to humiliate a girl just because she called them during wee hours of the night. And if this is the way cops will react if called late night for help, I don’t think any girl would dial 100 for safety. But it also doesn’t justify the stripping, which she used to get away from this awkward situation and made it even more awkward in the process.
Watch the compilation of the three videos here and then tell me what’s your opinion:
In Conclusion:
The whole scenario shows that both the girl and the policemen were at fault. First of all, the girl shouldn’t have created a fuss about such a petty issue. The guards aren’t obliged to entertain personal requests of the residents during late night hours and even if they reacted in a way that infuriated her, she should have kept calm and not get into a physical fight with them.
She should have thought calmly and taken action later. It was middle of the night and if she thought, those bad things could happen, if she went with the police, so could have happened in the building. There were 4 to 5 guards who were ganged up against her. And they could have very well harmed her if they wanted to.
But, the policemen who arrived at the scene too made grave mistakes in the way that they acted. They did not take any physical or verbal action against the guard. Even when he was raising his hands on the girl, they didn’t bother to stop him.
Additoinaly, it is unethical for them to record the video of a girl who had called them for her help and upload it on the social media platform without her consent.
The question is, who is to be really blamed? What’s your opinion?
