A concert by singer Kay Kay at the Shri Ram College of Commerce in Delhi turned out to be a horrific evening for Delhi University student Meghna Singh. After she posted about her experience on Facebook, she received a barrage of offensive, insulting and outrageous messages in reply. Not one to give up, she stood up against the trolling and cyber bullies, filing an FIR with the police yesterday, and setting an example for young women like her to demand justice.
Here's what happened.
On 9 March, the History Honours student of Miranda House college returned home from the performance in a happy mood, only to discover semen stains on the jeans she had been wearing. She recalled a man standing behind her at the concert and touching her, though she initially dismissed it as unintentional, since the crowd around her was swelling already. But since he didn't back off and alerted by an "odour", she pushed him away and formed a "human chain" of sorts by dragging her female friends around her.
While the man left without further ado, the "evidence" of his misdeed proved her worst suspicions true. Here's her Facebook post describing the incident.
Expectedly, she received a wave of support from her friends for having to suffer such ghastliness, though a number of men seemed to have found her allegations baseless, even comical, as it became clear from the responses, some forwarded to her by her friends. A number of people felt such an incident couldn't have taken place in public, in the presence of a strong crowd around her.
Undaunted by the bullying, she retaliated with another strongly-worded post, making it clear that while she wanted to draw people's attention to a shocking instance of misdemeanour, she wasn't interested in gathering more followers or drawing any attention to herself.
When her statements appeared to have made no impact on the trolls, she went ahead and filed an FIR in the presence of her professors and a lawyer on Sunday.
"I've filed complaints against both the sexual harassment and cyber bullying. Every THREAT, TROLL, MEME, ABUSE is going to be taken in account by the Police," she updated on Facebook. "I have also submitted my jeans for Forensic investigation. Happy commenting to you Fellas."
Singh's response comes on the heels of another episode of cyber-harassment faced by Gurmehar Kaur, a Delhi University student as well, who had spoken up against the violence that recently erupted at Ramjas College in the city.
After being abused, threatened and intimidated with violence online for days on end, Kaur was forced to withdraw her campaign for peace, but not before her action, and the reaction to it, exposed the mindset of the public, especially of men in India.
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