'Horrible and traumatic', says lady IAS officer as she recalls her experience of sexual harassment hearing in court

"Horrible and traumatic", is how IAS officer Riju Bafna describes her experience of appearing before a court to record her statement in a sexual harassment complaint. "As a young woman facing the Court for the first time in a sensitive matter of sexual harassment, I realized why women do not want to come out in the open and report sexual harassment cases. The entire experience was horrible and traumatic," she posted on Facebook.

Riju had filed a police complaint against Ayogya Mitra of MP Human Rights Commission in Seoni district Santosh Chaubey for allegedly harassing her by sending indecent messages. She claimed that while she was in court, she requested for an in camera recording of statement but a lawyer in court protested against her plea claiming that it is not her office that she can dictate her terms. She claims that her wish was simply because there were too many people in the court and discussing her harassment case was embarrassing for her.

"Such is the state of affairs for women in this country. When I said to Judicial Magistrate that he should be careful of presence of other people when a woman is giving statement under sexual harassment case, he said that you are young and that's why demanding such things," she said in her Facebook post.

Distressed by what she had to face in court, she took to Facebook to vent out her anger claiming how it is a struggle at every step for a woman who is born in India. "Idiots are lined up at every step and people are highly insensitive towards our sufferings. If you are born in this country, better prepare yourself for struggle at every step," she said.

However, when her statement calling people 'idiots' went viral, she clarified her remark claiming that she wrote the line "in the spur of moment and regret blaming the country for the fault of individuals. Though the entire experience made me realize how insensitive the criminal justice system is towards the sensitive matters of sexual crimes. I have full faith in the institutions of this country and I am making the following representation to the concerned authorities."