“I was scared for my life and begged for mercy but no one came to my rescue. At one point, I just wanted to escape from the incessant beating. With all my strength, I ran into the forest only to realise that I was being pursued by 10 men. Soon, they caught up with me and dragged me by the hair back to the resort. In fact, one of the men looked me in the eye and called me a prostitute. Just when I thought the worse was over, I heard a scream that froze my blood. And, before my helpless sight, I saw my friend jump from the second floor,” Aparajitha (name changed), one of the girls who was assaulted in Mangalore, told City Express.
Gathering remnants of her courage, one girl decided to tackle 15 men at once. What was going through her mind at that point? Such incidents raise serious questions on the concept of ‘moral policing’ and safety of women in the society. On July 28, a bunch of young college students decided to celebrate a friend’s birthday in style.
However, fate had something else in store for them. The shock and horror of the entire incident have left them scarred for life.
Aparajitha gave us a detailed encounter of what really happened that day.
“We booked a homestay at Padil from 2.30 pm to 6.30 pm. At around 6 pm, we decided to wind up the party and head back home. As one of my friends opened the door and stepped into the balcony, she noticed a few men pointing their cameras at us. A bunch of goons suddenly rushed towards our room and attacked us. We demanded the reason for their behaviour but didn’t get any answer. I was slapped more than six times and kicked in the stomach by several men that day. They told us that we deserved to be raped and demanded that I show my face to the camera,” said the engineering student. But, this did not deter the 19-year-old’s spirit for she continued to put up a struggle despite being wounded and decided not to give up.
Confused and devastated by the incident, Aparajitha also said that the media portrayed them in bad light and most of the photographs circulating on the Internet were staged by the attackers.
“After a certain point I could not take the pain anymore. I have bruises and lacerations all over my body. Those goons forced all the girls into the room and threatened to kill us if we refused to oblige. They tore apart one of the boys’ shirt, beat him up and asked him to sit on the bed next to us. Throughout this time, the cameras kept rolling and no one paid any heed to our appeals. As we covered our heads with scarves, all I could hear was a volley of clicks,” she added.
The bone-chilling events narrated by Aparajitha will serve as a constant reminder that one may not be safe in a cosmopolitan city, after all.
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