Two Female Students From Northeast Attacked Near DU, Called 'Coronavirus'

On March 3, two students from northeast India were attacked by six men in Kamla Nagar, near Delhi University's North Campus. The men, who were on motorbikes, threw water balloons at the two women and called them "coronavirus", Newslaundry reported.

"They threw balloons at my friend and me. We had a male friend with us but they threw the balloons only at us, aiming at our private parts. They saw that I had Mongoloid features after I took off my pollution mask. After that they screamed, 'Aye, coronavirus!' I was too shocked to react," one of the women, who studies at Hansraj College, said.

They went to a friend's place in Indra Vihar, where they called the Northeast Helpline. "The operator on the phone told us that a Police Control Room (PCR) van would be sent to our location soon," the student said.

The police officers who reached the spot of trouble later, tried to normalise the situation and didn't do anything to help the girls. "Your police station is Roop Nagar," the student quoted the officers as telling them. "You should've called them. Not us, beta."

Further, the police officers called the attack "normal" as "Holi is close", and advised them to "carry sticks like women in Delhi and Haryana do".

The PCR van left, but two police officers visited the women again later. "They kept rebuking me and asking me why I didn't tell them about the location of the incident being Kamla Nagar. I had mentioned it," the student said.

"They drove away after taking my application to the Station House Officer (SHO) and telling us that Roop Nagar was the police station concerned."

Recounting her visit to the police station, she said, "Their first priority wasn't to comfort me. They saw my features and asked if I understood Hindi. They assumed my problems on my behalf. They even tried to normalise the issue. I had to stand my ground and tell them over and over about what had happened while emphasising the attacker's use of the word 'coronavirus'."

She found out that her complaint to the SHO had not been submitted. She had to write a new one, on the basis of which the police then filed an FIR.

"My friend who was there with me is too overwhelmed to speak," the student said. "I don't know if the police will take concrete action on this."

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