Delhi women’s panel chief molested and dragged by car; man held

‘I could have met Anjali’s fate,’ says Swati Maliwal

Swati Maliwal, chairperson of Delhi Commission for Women. File | Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma

Out to inspect the state of women’s safety in the city in the night, Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal said she was molested and dragged by a person in a car in the early hours of Thursday near the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in South Delhi, the police said.

According to the police, they received a PCR call regarding the incident at 3.11 a.m. Deputy Commissioner of Police (South district), Chandan Chowdhary said the call was made from a special police patrol vehicle about a woman in distress opposite AIIMS gate no. 2.

“When the officers in the patrolling van asked, the woman mentioned that a person driving a car was drunk and stopped near her and asked her to sit in the car with a bad intention. When she refused, he went but came back after taking a U-turn from the service lane. He once again asked her to sit in the car. She refused and went near the driver’s side window to reprimand him. The car driver quickly rolled up the window, and as such her hand got stuck and she was dragged for 10-15 metres,” said Ms. Chowdhary, adding, “The woman was identified as Ms. Swati Maliwal.”

Ms. Chowdhary said the police intercepted the vehicle at 3.34 a.m. and arrested the driver of the car, Harish Chandra, a resident of Sangam Vihar.

Reacting to the incident, the DCW, in a statement, said Ms. Maliwal was inspecting the condition of the safety of women during nighttime when the incident happened.

Ms. Maliwal, in a video statement, said, she could have met “the same fate as Anjali Singh”, the woman who was killed after being hit and dragged by a car in the outer district’s Sultanpuri on January 1.

She said the man only let her go when her team members yelled and came towards her.

“If DCW chief isn’t safe in Delhi, one can imagine how unsafe Delhi is for women,” she said.

The police have arrested the driver of the car, Harish Chandra, and have registered a case under IPC Sections 323, 341, 354, 509, and Section 185 of the Motor Vehicle Act, the DCP said.