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Senior journalist on morning walk fights back molester for 15 minutes in Chandigarh’s Panjab University Botanical Garden
A 45-year-old senior journalist of a Chandigarh-based English newspaper fought off an unidentified man who molested her at Panjab University’s Botanical Garden here
A 45-year-old senior journalist of a Chandigarh-based English newspaper fought off an unidentified man who molested her at Panjab University’s Botanical Garden here while she was on a routine morning walk around 7.30am on Monday.
The journalist, who lives on the campus, said the man, who appeared to be in his mid-forties, stealthily sneaked up behind her, pushed himself on to her, groped her and entered into a scuffle that lasted 15 minutes before she escaped his clutches and ran towards the gate of the garden traumatised, while he vanished “into nothingness”.
“Nearly 15 minutes of grappling with him alone, I screamed for someone to hear me, hoping this is not the way my life will end. I hit him with one hand as I, pushed to the ground and on my knees, balanced myself against falling flat to give him more control over me,” she wrote in an account.
She suffered injuries on her face and bruises on her arms in the attack.
HE HAD STALKED HER
TWO DAYS AGO, TOO
The woman told the police that she noticed the man following her two days ago, too.
On Monday, she had walked about 3km and was halfway through the track, towards the boundary wall of the garden when she felt she was being followed.
“Suddenly, for no reason I felt uneasy. Like somebody was right behind me. I turned to see the man appear out of nowhere. I recognised him as the man who had asked me a day before which hostel I lived in. That day, I had told him that I was faculty and looked back into my phone to avoid any further conversation. He had left that day. On Monday, he was back at the same place and in the same clothes. He pointed towards the cactus enclosure, telling me that some flowers blooming there could be photographed. Then he started walking towards me, which made me uncomfortable. I told him to back off, failing which I would take his photo and give it to the police,” she said.
SCREAMED, KICKED MOLESTER
WITH RENEWED RESOLVE
She looked around for help but found no one in earshot. In the next second, he held her in a tight grip.
“I began to scream but he gagged my mouth with his hand and pressed his body against my back. I bit his hand and struggled to break free. He managed to make me lose my balance and pushed me to the ground. I tried to hit back more determined but he was back on me before I could stand up. I kept screaming and trying to kick him and dig my elbow in his chest but nothing was working,” she said.
The thought of being raped and the reports of the Hyderabad and Unnao rape victims made her fight back with a renewed resolve. “An inner voice told me that being strong is all it will take to deal with the coward. I had to win. So with renewed energy, I kept thinking of ways to get back,” she said, recalling the horror.
She ran her hands on the ground around and found a branch that she thrust at the molester’s face and scrambled out of his grip to run towards the gate where she saw two walkers entering the garden.
“I was bleeding from the lips because his nails had dug into my skin. I was breathless and immediately called up my husband,” she said.
The woman and her husband later approached the Sector 11 police station, where a case under Sections 354 (sexual harassment), 354-A (passing sexually coloured remarks), 354-D (stalking) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code was registered.
Based on her description, police have released a sketch of the accused. Investigators are also scanning CCTV footage on the campus to identify and arrest the molester.
