Lynch mob Attack in Khan Market
NB: This incident took place within (approximately) a kilometre of the official residence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. For me, it symbolises the chief marker of the BJP/RSS government: police apathy (or worse) in the face of lawlessness, and assumption of impunity by violent men indulging in lynching or attempts at lynching. Readers may also read the text in the source link below. DS
October 31, 2018, Khan Market; 5:18 PM
https://www.facebook.com/unfair.web.1/posts/506759903155288
Chills run down my spine as I write this, forced to relive the moments which have changed my life. As a woman who has grown up in this city over the last three decades, I always considered Delhi to be my home. Today, I no longer feel safe in Delhi, a city whose people I foolishly thought I understood despite its worsening reputation. However, this story needs to be told. So here goes:
My husband, his friend who was visiting us, and I were in Khan Market. We were showing our friend around and decided to stop for a bite to eat. As we were looking for parking, my husband spotted a slot, and got out of the car to manage traffic behind me, while I reversed into the parking spot with the parking attendant’s help. While he requested the cars behind to wait for a minute, the impatient driver of the car he was standing in front of got enraged at being made to wait, accelerated and nudged his car into my husband’s legs. Losing his balance, my husband fell onto the road.
Following this, there was a heated exchange between my husband and the driver resulting in the driver calling out to some people standing around, some mechanics and a few other men arriving on the spot. Seeing the unsavoury crowd build up, I was concerned about our safety and asked my husband to get into the car to leave asap. As he got into the car, we found ourselves suddenly surrounded by at least 10-15 people, who were getting pretty aggressive.
The scene was one of building aggression, with people yelling at us in raised voices. Even as my husband tried to tell them we were leaving, and I started indicating to get them to move aside and inching the car forward, the driver (who was an employee of one of the car repair shops and the main accused in this incident) suddenly appeared running onto my right side, lunged at the windscreen with a metal rod, shattering it.
Thankfully the laminated glass held. He then proceeded to smash the rear windscreen, resulting in shattered glass all over my husband who was sitting in the back seat, now exposed to the mob, which was only growing in number and getting more and more hostile. We were terrified by now. With trembling hands, I clung onto the steering wheel, panicking, looking to get out of there as quickly as possible; soon realizing the futility of that effort as the narrow lane was clogged with cars and pedestrians. The mob, which was now easily 70-100 people strong, managed to accost us right outside the police chowki, jamming our car between two cars so we were trapped and couldn’t go anywhere.
And then the mob unleashed its fury! Metal rods, cricket bats, wicket stumps, all raining down on the car, in an attempt to break the windows and drag us out and beat us up…and god knows what more. Thankfully, the jagged glass ends of the rear windscreen prevented anyone from crawling in. There were people screaming and shoving rods into the back seat, trying to stab and impale my husband.
The police, who were also present at the site throughout this incident, then proceeded to take more than 30-45 minutes to control the mob. Right though this whole time, we were under continuous attack from the vicious mob, fearing for our lives. None came forward to help or assist us in any way possible. As a woman in Delhi, I have constantly been subjected to varying degrees of harassment on a daily basis; further, as an inter faith couple we have dealt with our fair share of abuse in our social and professional lives, Yet, never have I actually feared that my husband and I would be killed, but that day I had no doubt what would happen if the mob got their hands on us! They were shaking our car violently, trying to overturn it, and we even heard them shouting to each another to burn the car! Shaking and shivering in our shoes, we frantically made calls to whoever we thought could help, including the police.
Finally, our lawyer friend was able to arrive on the scene and control the situation, enabling us to get out of the car safely. I shudder to think what could have happened if he had been just a few minutes late and the mob was successful in either breaking just one more window, or overturning or burning our car with us in it. The trauma hasn’t left us for a moment since the incident. Our car is totalled, neither of us have had a full night’s sleep since the incident- and we know its not over yet.
Although an FIR was registered against the main accused by the Sub Inspector of the chowki, we later learnt that he was arrested only to be let off on bail the next day. We also learnt that the Indian Penal Code sections mentioned in the FIR were heavily diluted and not reflective of the complaint lodged by us. We are, of course, going to fight this out in court, but things look dim. We haven't even received the CCTV footage of the incident yet, despite many requests.
I don’t know what will happen with our case, and as citizens of this country, we question whether we will get justice- or even due process of the law. But a more pressing question we’ve been asking ourselves these past few days is, who is responsible for a citizen’s safety in this country? And how are we expected to come to terms with the fact that this kind of incident can take place in the middle of one of the busiest, markets which is visited by and interacts with liberal, educated and upmarket clientele-- right in front of a police chowki? That someone can make an attack on your life with no fear of consequence?
Our police force seems to have made its peace with the gunda raaj that runs this city, holding all of us hostage. This is the experience of India which our foreigner friend takes back, who had to cut short his visit, and is currently undergoing treatment for PTSD. A lovely day spent sightseeing, admiring the temples, tombs and forts of Delhi, has turned into the worst day of his life.
October 31, 2018, Khan Market; 5:18 PM
https://www.facebook.com/unfair.web.1/posts/506759903155288
Chills run down my spine as I write this, forced to relive the moments which have changed my life. As a woman who has grown up in this city over the last three decades, I always considered Delhi to be my home. Today, I no longer feel safe in Delhi, a city whose people I foolishly thought I understood despite its worsening reputation. However, this story needs to be told. So here goes:
My husband, his friend who was visiting us, and I were in Khan Market. We were showing our friend around and decided to stop for a bite to eat. As we were looking for parking, my husband spotted a slot, and got out of the car to manage traffic behind me, while I reversed into the parking spot with the parking attendant’s help. While he requested the cars behind to wait for a minute, the impatient driver of the car he was standing in front of got enraged at being made to wait, accelerated and nudged his car into my husband’s legs. Losing his balance, my husband fell onto the road.
Following this, there was a heated exchange between my husband and the driver resulting in the driver calling out to some people standing around, some mechanics and a few other men arriving on the spot. Seeing the unsavoury crowd build up, I was concerned about our safety and asked my husband to get into the car to leave asap. As he got into the car, we found ourselves suddenly surrounded by at least 10-15 people, who were getting pretty aggressive.
The scene was one of building aggression, with people yelling at us in raised voices. Even as my husband tried to tell them we were leaving, and I started indicating to get them to move aside and inching the car forward, the driver (who was an employee of one of the car repair shops and the main accused in this incident) suddenly appeared running onto my right side, lunged at the windscreen with a metal rod, shattering it.
Thankfully the laminated glass held. He then proceeded to smash the rear windscreen, resulting in shattered glass all over my husband who was sitting in the back seat, now exposed to the mob, which was only growing in number and getting more and more hostile. We were terrified by now. With trembling hands, I clung onto the steering wheel, panicking, looking to get out of there as quickly as possible; soon realizing the futility of that effort as the narrow lane was clogged with cars and pedestrians. The mob, which was now easily 70-100 people strong, managed to accost us right outside the police chowki, jamming our car between two cars so we were trapped and couldn’t go anywhere.
And then the mob unleashed its fury! Metal rods, cricket bats, wicket stumps, all raining down on the car, in an attempt to break the windows and drag us out and beat us up…and god knows what more. Thankfully, the jagged glass ends of the rear windscreen prevented anyone from crawling in. There were people screaming and shoving rods into the back seat, trying to stab and impale my husband.
The police, who were also present at the site throughout this incident, then proceeded to take more than 30-45 minutes to control the mob. Right though this whole time, we were under continuous attack from the vicious mob, fearing for our lives. None came forward to help or assist us in any way possible. As a woman in Delhi, I have constantly been subjected to varying degrees of harassment on a daily basis; further, as an inter faith couple we have dealt with our fair share of abuse in our social and professional lives, Yet, never have I actually feared that my husband and I would be killed, but that day I had no doubt what would happen if the mob got their hands on us! They were shaking our car violently, trying to overturn it, and we even heard them shouting to each another to burn the car! Shaking and shivering in our shoes, we frantically made calls to whoever we thought could help, including the police.
Finally, our lawyer friend was able to arrive on the scene and control the situation, enabling us to get out of the car safely. I shudder to think what could have happened if he had been just a few minutes late and the mob was successful in either breaking just one more window, or overturning or burning our car with us in it. The trauma hasn’t left us for a moment since the incident. Our car is totalled, neither of us have had a full night’s sleep since the incident- and we know its not over yet.
Although an FIR was registered against the main accused by the Sub Inspector of the chowki, we later learnt that he was arrested only to be let off on bail the next day. We also learnt that the Indian Penal Code sections mentioned in the FIR were heavily diluted and not reflective of the complaint lodged by us. We are, of course, going to fight this out in court, but things look dim. We haven't even received the CCTV footage of the incident yet, despite many requests.
I don’t know what will happen with our case, and as citizens of this country, we question whether we will get justice- or even due process of the law. But a more pressing question we’ve been asking ourselves these past few days is, who is responsible for a citizen’s safety in this country? And how are we expected to come to terms with the fact that this kind of incident can take place in the middle of one of the busiest, markets which is visited by and interacts with liberal, educated and upmarket clientele-- right in front of a police chowki? That someone can make an attack on your life with no fear of consequence?
Our police force seems to have made its peace with the gunda raaj that runs this city, holding all of us hostage. This is the experience of India which our foreigner friend takes back, who had to cut short his visit, and is currently undergoing treatment for PTSD. A lovely day spent sightseeing, admiring the temples, tombs and forts of Delhi, has turned into the worst day of his life.
Delhi Police Archive on RSS activity in October-December 1947
Ramachandra Guha: Narendra Modi’s paradoxical claim on the legacy of Gandhi
Ramachandra Guha: Narendra Modi’s paradoxical claim on the legacy of Gandhi
