Over 150 women from Haryana gathered at Jantar Mantar here on Monday to protest against the lack of action in a sexual harassment case involving Haryana Minister Sandeep Singh.
Earlier this year, a senior athlete from Haryana had accused Mr. Singh, the then Sports and Youth Minister, of harassing her “officially, mentally and physically”. While Mr. Singh has been stripped of his portfolio, he remains in the State Cabinet.
The women protesters gathered here with more than 30,000 signatures of Haryana residents, seeking justice from President Droupadi Murmu. They demanded swift action on the delay in filing a chargesheet against the former Sports Minister.
Despite the allegations against Mr. Singh, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal refused to accept the accused’s resignation. “He continues to remain a Minister and influence the investigation. Instead of investigating him, the fact-finding committee harassed his daughter and tried to tarnish her character,” the victim’s father said.
Character scrutiny
Despite the FIR being lodged in Chandigarh, the Haryana police set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case. The complainant’s father said that SIT members went to schools attended by the complainant in order to scrutinise her “character”. They tried to influence the schools to say that she had a questionable character in the past, the victim’s father alleged.
Haryana Police has been incompetent in providing any security to my daughter, the victim’s father said. “Over the last few months, my daughter has received multiple life threats, and the Haryana police instead of helping her, have only harassed and manhandled her,” he told The Hindu.
For the last three months, Haryana residents have been protesting against the BJP government’s attempts to shelter sexual harassers, said AIDWA general secretary Mariam Dhawale
“We have shown the Haryana Minister black flag when he attended an event to host the National flag, and ever since the Chief Minister has shown support in his favour, we have protested at all his public engagements too,” she added.
The protesters who had earlier written to Ms. Murmu and had been turned down, submitted a fresh appeal with more than 30,000 signatures seeking justice for the senior athlete and dismissal of the accused Minister.
“We want an impartial probe in the matter and subsequent punishment for the guilty,” said AIDWA vice-president Jagmati Sangwan.
