Harassment of northeast youth rising in Gurgaon

Cases of abuse and discrimination against northeast youth have seen a rise in the capital's neighbouring town Gurgaon, the latest incident being of a young Manipuri woman being molested by a shop manager Friday, a voluntary organisation said Saturday.

According to the North East Support Centre and Helpline, the 20-year-old employee at the Metropolitan Mall's Ginny and Johny outlet was molested by her store manager after she refused his advances.

“He forced me to sit and watch nude pictures. He grabbed me when I refused to see the pictures and then he molested me,” the woman told the North East Support Centre in a statement.

According to Madhu Chandra, founder member of the centre, the incident took place at 9.20 p.m. Friday and the accused was identified as Vijay.

Chandra told IANS: “The girl was completely scared. She was afraid to tell the police. When I called the area police, they told me that I was reporting a false case, and the victim should come and lodge the complaint.”

She also complained that the Gurgaon police “were being indifferent”.

According to Chandra, several northeast youths have fallen prey to racial discrimination and abuse in the past few days in Gurgaon.

On Nov 3, two woman from Nagaland, both aged 20, were returning home from work at 8 p.m. when seven drunk men confronted them in Sikanderpur, abused them and pushed them into a drain. A day later in the same area two young Naga boys were beaten up.

“Panic has spread and they are too afraid to face the police to register the complaints in police station. We have appealed to the youngsters to write the complaint and I will file it,” Chandra said.

Gurgaon Police Commissioner S.S. Deswal said he was unaware of any such case.

“If there has been any such case it has not been brought to my notice. The police should not have rejected any complaint. We will accept anyone to register the complaint and we will take immediate action,” Deswal told IANS.

In the national capital also there have been a number of protests by the northeast students against the rising crimes against the community. The protests were triggered by the murder of a Naga woman by an IIT scholar in her home in south Delhi two weeks ago.

The widespread protests, which also saw Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi assuring the students of his support, made Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit publicly assure the northeast community of better security.

Last updated on Nov 7^th, 2009 at 17:58 pm IST--IANS