April 20, 2024

The Chandigarh police must be patted on the back for not buckling under the pressure of a big name and re-arresting Vikas Barala, son of BJP’s Haryana unit chief Subhash Barala and his friend Ashish Kumar. That the police could include attempted kidnapping in their revised charges is also a clear pointer that not much political pressure was applied and the law was allowed to take its own course, maybe in the face of rising anger among the people of Chandigarh.

Barala, along with his friends, had accosted the daughter of an IAS officer, tried to get her out of her car and then chased her down the streets of Chandigarh in a clear attempt to abduct her. But initially the police had charged them under bailable sections of IPC and MV Act and allowed them bail. It was only after a nationwide protest that they were charged with the more serious offence of attempted kidnapping and rearrested under non-bailable charges.

It is becoming a recurrent feature of society in India where sons of big politicians and moneybags think they own the turf where they set their foot and everyone else is supposed to bow to them. The local administration often bows to them due to political pressure. This results in their misdeeds going unpunished. The police often advise the victim to “forgive and forget.” But since the Chandigarh girl, Varnika Kundu, had the guts to pursue the case, they had no option but to re-arrest the culprits.

This is just the beginning. One hopes that the case is handled fairly. The boys definitely harassed the girl. In her own words, she would have been lying in a ditch somewhere after being raped, either dead or fighting for her life, if she did not have the courage and presence of mind to flee from the scene. To ensure safety of women, the case must be taken to its logical end and the culprits punished. The BJP must ensure that Barala does not use his position to influence the police or to put pressure on the girl’s family to withdraw the case.

People like BJP MP Babul Supriyo, who has been saying these things happen in films too where the hero pursues the heroine to win her must be reminded that women have the right to say no. Once Varnika refused to open her car window to talk to them, why did they choose to pursue her at high speed for many kilometers? In any case Vikas Barala is no hero and what is shown on the reel should remain there. In real life, pursuing a girl against her wishes is stalking and is a punishable offence.