Back in 2009, we all saw visuals of young women in Mangalore being dragged by their hair by men who couldn’t bear the sight of women ‘flouting traditional Indian norms’ and ‘getting close to Muslim men’.
These men, all 30 of them belonging to the Hindutva group Sri Ram Sene, were acquitted on Monday by the third judicial magistrate of first class court in Mangaluru for ‘lack of evidence’, reports News 18.
You might be thinking, ‘but the evidence is right there, those videos are evidence’. Well, apparently, they are not.
The state deputy convenor of the group, Prasad Attavar, had claimed the responsibility for the attack. He had said, “It was a spontaneous reaction against women who flouted traditional Indian norms of decency. These women were Hindus who dared to get close to Muslim men.”
That too, is not ‘evidence’.
What exactly were the charges against these men that they managed to come out clean after 9 years? If harassing women was one of them, it’s shocking how and why they are acquitted. If harassing women wasn’t one of them, then there are more important questions that need to be asked.
On January 24, 2009, a group of 40 men entered into the pub ‘Amnesia – The Lounge’ and dragged women out for ‘degrading Indian values’. Things got so serious that two girls had to be hospitalized.
The incident was met with a lot of outrage from youngsters who started a ‘pink chaddhi’ campaign and sent pink undergarments to the members of the sena as a sign of protest.
After the ruling, chief of Sri Ram Sene Pramod Muthalik, said, “We believe that this is a triumph. Cases under some 10 sections were filed against us and we have emerged victorious today.”