Anger in India as Japanese tourist seen molested on Delhi street during Holi
Fri, 10 March 2023 at 1:01 pm GMT·2-min read
Anger in India as Japanese tourist seen molested on Delhi street during Holi
In this article:
- Swati Maliwal
Women activist
A Japanese woman was sexually assaulted by a group of men during the celebration of the Hindu festival of Holi in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The young woman could be seen in a video being groped by five or six men who forcefully smeared her face with colours while screaming "happy Holi".
The video, now viral on Twitter, showed a man also smashing an egg on the woman's head as she got shoved around.
The woman could be heard saying "bye-bye" as she attempted to escape the crowd.
Eventually, the woman slapped another woman who tried to get hold of her while she went into a narrow ally.
The incident reportedly took place in the capital's Paharganj area.
The video has sparked outrage about women's safety during the spring festival, where women have often complained about being harassed and groped by men under the pretext of applying colours.
No complaint or call regarding any misbehaviour with any foreigner was received by the local police station, Delhi police said in a statement.
An email has been sent to the Japanese embassy for details of the woman seen in the video, the police added.
Authorities were trying to establish the identity of the men seen in the video through local intelligence, it added.
Swati Maliwal, the chair for Delhi Commission for Women, called the incident "completely shameful behaviour" and said she is issuing a notice to Delhi police to arrest the perpetrators.
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“The women protesting the molestation and harassment during Holi is not defaming the religion or festival. The men who doing it, are. Go after them,” wrote Twitter user Priyashmita Guha.
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In a separate incident, a 65-year-old woman in the eastern state of Jharkhand was beaten to death by a group of six people for allegedly stopping them from applying colours to her son.
The incident took place during Holi when the woman, identified as Bucchi Devi, got into an altercation with the group and stopped them from applying colours to her son Murari.
The mother and her son were thrashed by the group till the victims lost consciousness, the local police said. Murari woke up to find his mother lying dead, according to reports.
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