On Sunday, a 21-yr Tanzanian girl was thrashed and stripped by public in Hesaraghatta in north Bengaluru after a 35 year old lady was killed in an accident with a car driven by a Sudanese student. However, the shocking fact is that the Tanzanian girl has no connection with the accused Sudanese student. Even more amazingly, she reached the accident location after 30 minutes of the mishap.
Not only this, the angry public burnt both the cars, the one that was driven by the Sudanese student and the other with which the Tanzanian girl and her friends reached the accident spot. Public not only slammed and stripped the girl but also made her parade. And quite shockingly, this all happened in front of police.
Bosco Kaweesi, Legal adviser of All African Students Union, Bengaluru also confirmed that the accused Sudanese person and Tanzanian girl were unknown to each other.
In his words, “The students and her friends came in her car half an hour after the accident. The mob thought they were with the same group and forced them to come out of the car. While three of her friends escaped, she was held by the locals, stripped, beaten up and paraded on the road.”
He further asked, “I understand local sentiments and that people were angry, but how can they beat up an innocent woman?”
Friends of Tanzanian girl tried to save themselves by getting into the bus but when public started beating them again, passengers pushed them down from the bus.
Bosco also claimed that the police had not performed their duty properly and when the Tanzanian girl asked them to file her complaint, they refused and asked her to bring the accused while the accused was already with them.
Bosco further told, “When someone from the crowd offered her a T-Shirt to protect her modesty, that man too was beaten up by the mob. Later, when she tried to enter a BMTC bus that had slowed down nearby, the passengers in the bus pushed her on to the road.”
As per Megharik, police commissioner(Bengaluru), all this has happened due to mistaken identity but he and his department had no answer when they were questioned as to why the girl’s complain was not filed.
On Wednesday, Police has arrested four persons on the charges of burning cars.
Is it sensible on the part of public to punish someone else for the mistake of any other person and the most important question which strikes our minds is “Who are they to take law in their own hands and what was the police doing all this time?”