Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal was on Thursday molested and dragged for 10-15 metres outside Gate number 2 of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi. According to Delhi Police, Maliwal was dragged by the car after her hand got stuck in the car’s window while she was reprimanding the driver who asked her to “sit in her car”.
“Swati Maliwal (was) dragged by a car for 10-15 metres at around 3.11 am opp AIIMS gate 2, after her hand got stuck in the car’s window as driver, Harish Chandra, suddenly pulled up glass window while she was reprimanding him as he asked her to sit in his car,” news agency quoted a Delhi Police official as saying.
As per the police, the driver, identified as 47-year-old Harish Chandra, was in an inebriated state at the time of the incident. He has been arrested and an FIR registered. “Medical examination of accused and victim was done. The incident happened when Swati Maliwal was standing on a footpath with her team standing near her at the same location,” the Delhi Police officer quoted by ANI said.
Narrating the incident, Maliwal said that she was out on Delhi’s roads on an inspection to check if there have been any changes in terms of women’s security in the capital after the Anjali Singh incident. when the Baleno car stopped near her.
“I was standing alone opposite the AIIMS bus stop when I noticed that cars and trucks began to stop. A white Baleno car stopped very close to me. The driver, heavily drunk, began to pester me to sit in his car and that he would drop me. When I refused, he drove away in anger, only to return after 10 minutes. When I categorically told him that I do not want to go with him, he kept forcing me and even made some vulgar gestures.
“When I reprimanded him and tried to catch him, he accelerated and my hand got stuck in the car window. I was dragged for around 10-15 metres. It was only when a member of my team arrived that the man stopped. God saved me otherwise something bad could have happened to me. If the DCW chief is not safe in this city, imagine what is the state of women’s security otherwise,” she said.
The incident came less than a month after Anjali Singh, 20, was killed after a car dragged her for several kilometres on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1.