Jasleen Kaur’s Case- People, Media, Police & Politicians

If you are on Facebook, chances are you read about the alleged eve teasing incident reported by one Jasleen Kaur against a guy Sarvjeet Singh. In case you are not aware of the issue, I’ll quickly bring you up to speed by quoting directly from The Hindu:

A 20-year-old Delhi University student was allegedly eve-teased and threatened by a motorcyclist in West Delhi on Sunday following which she captured him on her phone and approached the police.
The accused, Saravjeet Singh, 26, was arrested within 24 hours of the incident after a Facebook post by the girl went viral.

Since I wasn’t present there, I won’t go into the discussion of who is right and who is wrong. That’s the job of the police to figure out. However, I do want to highlight some alarming trends that I notice every time such a case pops up.

Reaction of the People

We are quick to jump to conclusions and pass judgment without having the full context. It’s so easy to influence our collective thought process. Come up with a sensational post on social media and we’ll immediately lap it up. In this particular case, the post by the girl was shared more than 130K times with the majority of the comments branding the guy as a jerk, an asshole, a blot on society, etc.

Is it right to pass judgment on someone by hearing just one side of the story and with no proof- the pic that was shared on social media shows a guy sitting on his bike looking in the direction of the camera and that proves nothing. Is it right to malign someone’s image without giving them a chance to speak up? Isn’t there a remote possibility that the guy was framed for a crime he didn’t commit?

Reaction of the Media

The media cares for TRP and just TRP. Media folks would jump with excitement at any opportunity that can get them a few clicks and views. These days Women’s Empowerment is a hot topic, so they are quick to report and pass their verdict on such issues without verifying the story or waiting for the investigation to be over.

Here is a funny account of how Anurag Kashyap trolled Indian Media, which proves the above point.

Reaction of the Police

I am most appalled by the reaction of Delhi police in this case. Delhi Police awarded the girl ₹5000 for her ‘bravery’, even before investigating the case thoroughly. Would the police conduct an unbiased investigation when they have already indirectly accepted the girl’s version of the story?

Also, is it right to award people for lodging FIRs? Would it not lead to false FIRs being lodged and innocents being framed in false cases?

Reaction of the Politicians

Delhi CM Mr Arvind Kejriwal had this to say:

Congratulate @jasleenkaur89 for her bravery. Girls of Delhi should follow her & speak up against such unacceptable acts

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) August 24, 2015

Congratulate @jasleenkaur89 for her bravery. Girls of Delhi should follow her & speak up against such unacceptable acts — Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) August 24, 2015

Is it right for the CM of a state to endorse the complainant when the investigation is not yet over? By doing so has he not indirectly passed his verdict and would that not influence the investigation?

If you read till here, I’ll urge you to check the links below to understand both sides of the story:

Jasleen’s FB post about the incident that led to Sarvjeet Singh’s arrest

Sarvjeet’s side of the story

Sarvjeet Singh post shared on my FB wall. Let’s #FightBackIndia call the witnesses now! pic.twitter.com/WaHlQAK35c

— Deepika Bhardwaj (@DeepikaBhardwaj) August 24, 2015

Account of an Eyewitness who says that Jasleen wrongly accused the guy

Jasleen’s reaction when she is asked to confront the guy and the eyewitness

There have been so many cases of girls abusing the very laws made to protect them that every time I hear of such incidents my first reaction is that of skepticism. As per a report published by the Delhi Commission of Women in Oct 2014,

53.2% of the rape cases filed between April 2013 and July 2014 in the capital were found to be ‘false’.

Link

Read this Quora Post for the harrowing account of men who were wrongly framed by women in sexual harassment/dowry cases.

Do we realize that when a guy is accused of molestation it effectively destroys his life? Even if the court later finds such a person to be innocent, society looks at him with suspicion. He loses his face in society, he loses his job. It’s a serious accusation girls!

I hope Jasleen is right, or else with the increasing number of false cases coming to light, people will lose faith in the system. As the fable goes, there are only so many times you can cry ‘wolf’ before people stop listening.

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Photo Credit:

Photo by Ye Jinghan on Unsplash