On New Year’s Eve, I was hosting my Limited Edition Event at a hotel on Residency Road [adjoining Brigade Road junction]. The event got over around midnight. I came out of the hotel to get into my car and go home but as I was walking out of the hotel, I heard women’s screams and saw them running with their high heels in their hand, from Brigade Road junction towards Mayo Hall. I came out of the gate and saw a huge commotion outside. A group of 25-30 men were trying to surround five girls and three boys. The hooligans were calling them names and talking to them disre-spectfully. Some of them seemed drunk. I immediately went inside the hotel gate and called the two bouncers who came to escort me till my car. Three of us came back to the spot (in front of Hotel Park) to help the women, who looked frightened.

I raised my voice, warned some of them. When the bouncers and I told them that we would call the cops, they just kept staring at us. They were silent. It seemed as if it never occurred to them that they would be stopped by anyone.

As they stood still, wondering what to do, the bouncers kept them under surveillance and I escorted the girls and the guys. The group we rescued just wanted to go home. I told them that I would book a cab and send them home. They told me that they have already booked a cab and it is waiting near Mayo Hall.

While we handled the hooligans, the group ran towards their cab and fled the scene. I wondered what would have happened to them had we not intervened. There were no

‘25-30 men were closing in

on 5 girls... calling names’

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| Bangalore Mirror Bureau

mybangaloremirror

@timesgroup.com

TWEETS @BangaloreMirror

Strong reactions have been pouring in from around the world, condemning the shameful mass molestation on MG Road on the New Year’s Eve. While home min-ister G Parameshwara is at the receiving end for his foot-in-mouth comment, the Bengaluru city police have been on the defensive, citing lack of ‘action evidence’ and refusing to admit such a bra-zen incident.

However, the state’s politi-cal and bureaucratic circles have expressed the opinion that the state government has to be blamed for the mess. Resorting to a major bureau-cratic reshuffle in a hush-hush manner on the last day of the year, the state govern-ment’s decision left the city’s police force headless, thereby giving a free-hand to thugs

who went on a rampage on the city streets.

Leaders cutting across party lines have questioned state government’s tactically erro-neous decision to transfer about 50 IPS officers on the last day of the year, at a time when there were reports of massive turnout of young-sters in Central Business District (CBD) area. Many say

that the decision to transfer so many officers not only allowed complacency to set in but also left lower-rung officers clueless about who their bosses for that night were.

A top bureaucrat of the state government, refusing to be officially quoted in this context, said: “There was no urgency on the part of the

government to transfer those many officials. If an officer is due for promotion, then there is every reason for the government to effect its pro-motion and transfer order so that the promoted officer would be entitled to all the perks and benefits associated with the new post. But for the transfer, the government could have waited for another day to effect change of guard at the top levels of Bengaluru Police force or it could have even anticipated it by a week. The government would have incurred no loss by doing so.”

To add weight the top offic-er’s opinion, except for N Satheesh Kumar, among the top officers of Bengaluru Commissionerate, no officer was due for promotion and all their transfers could have been deferred by a day or week. Blaming the state gov-ernment for the fiasco, for-mer Law minister and BJP

| Farheen Hussain

mybangaloremirror

@timesgroup.com

TWEETS @BangaloreMirror

The New Year’s Eve incident points to a rot in society that requires collective action. Restricting the freedom of women in order to keep them safe can’t be a solution. With this idea in mind, a group of law students have come for-ward with a campaign that looks to make Bengaluru’s streets safer for women.

Called (K)Night in Shining Armour’, the group of women are sending out the message that early deadline is not a solution. Instead, they are crusading to reclaim the right to fearlessly walk the city street even after 8 pm.

Their Facebook page says the group “..Intends to get

more people out on the streets and remove the stigma attached to women being outside their homes after 8PM.”

The group plans to hold its first event called ‘Í will go out’, at 8pm on Saturday (January 7) outside Cauvery Emporium. The walk will cover Brigade Road. The

intention is to not only put the spotlight on the horrors of New Year’s Eve on MG Road, but the harassments women face every day that are almost never reported.

Nandita Krishna, a mem-ber of (K)Night in Shining Armour, said: “Some people are saying that there is no proof of what happened on

New Year’s Eve. Some of our friends faced it that night, so we know things have hap-pened. This is going to be a solidarity march. It is not a protest march, but an attempt to normalise wom-en’s staying out in the night. It is not against the authori-ties, but a cooperative move-ment wherein we are saying, ‘we will help you, you help us’. We are not blaming the authorities or trying to ruffle any feathers but want to tar-get the molesters. We want parents of women who are out at night to not fear any-more. We also want curfews that restrict personal freedom removed.”

The laws students said didn’t want to stay quiet any-more, but “do something

Looking for a ray of hope at sundown

IPS transfers came at the wrong

time, left city police rudderless

TURN TO PAGE 2

TURN TO PAGE 2

| Ravi S Joshi

mybangaloremirror

@timesgroup.com

TWEETS @BangaloreMirror

“It was a terrible night,” Anantha Subramanyam K said on Sunday morning when he called to wish me on New Year. Anantha had been assigned to cover the New Year revelry on MG Road, where thousands of Bengalureans converge every year on its last night.“Girls were shouting, cry-ing… There was chaos every-where,” he continued. I have known Anantha profession-ally for over six years now and know that he calls up only when he’s on to some-thing.

“Send me the pictures,” I told him. An hour later, when I received the email I jumped out of the chair I was sitting in and got on the phone with my colleague, Binoy Valsan, who heads the crime bureau. Both of us flew into a fit of rage after looking at the pic-tures (several women had been molested as the crowd surged past midnight) and decided that we should front-page the apparent violation of women and lawlessness that prevailed on MG Road-Brigade Road junction in the small hours of January 1.

Let’s call it Bengaluru’s night of shame, I suggested. Police will be shaken into action, we thought; the molesters will be arrested and the city will be slightly safer,

we hoped.Four days after we broke

the story, we are still thinkingand hoping for the same; but Bengaluru police seem to be in a state of denial.

We’ve tracked down 10 witnesses (at last count) who corroborated our story; women who were groped

multiple times went on record with their horror sto-ries; the Good Samaritans who came to the rescue of some women in distress con-firmed our story; colleagues who drove back home through the chaos concurred and shared their own night-marish experience. The inter-national media caught on to the story; but only after it had found independent wit-nesses with similar tales.

But the police are still in a state of denial.

The police chief is waiting for women to come forward and complain to them so that he can take action; his colleagues in the IAS, judici-ary, and even a member of parliament have reminded him that he has the power to take suo moto action.

But He shall not be moved.

B’luru police theory: Shield the molester, shoot the messenger

In a first, about 50 IPS officers were transferred on the last day of the year, leading to confusion

MC Abbas had just wrapped up an event at a five-star on Residency Road on

Dec 31 night; along with two bouncers, he rescued the group of youngsters

TURN TO PAGE 2TURN TO PAGE 2

FORECAST MAINLY CLEAR SKY. FOG/MIST VERY LIKELY IN SOME AREA DURING MORNING HOURS | SUNRISE 06:08 HRS | SUNSET 18:36 HRS

9902028822These pictures make us

wonder whether Bengaluru,

a city by and large known for

its sophistication, is going

the Delhi way? If you have

experienced such horrors in

the city, do write to us at

mybangaloremirror@

timesgroup.com so we can

expose the scum. Or, you can

WhatsApp us at the above

number, with pictures if any.

WHATSAPP US WHATSAPP US

A HUMAN CHAIN TO

PROTEST MOLESTATIONS

An anonymous group has decid-

ed to go on a silent protest

against the shameful molesta-

tions that took place on MG Road

on New Year’s Eve.

A human chain formation has

been planned on January 7 in

front of Vidhana Soudha from 11

am to 1 pm. The protest, named

‘Touch Me Not’, will be a way of

bringing the issue up for discus-

sion and solution. “The protest

was organised anonymously by a

group of people with common in-

terests. It will not be any protest

march or sloganeering. We just

plan to stand in front of the Vidha-

na Soudha silently for a peaceful

protest,” said one of the organis-

ers, who wished to remain anony-

mous. The organisers claim they

have 50 participants so far, but

expect the number to at least

double by January 7.

DURGESH KUMAR Y

MC Abbas at the spot where the gang of molesters were closing in on the group of girls and boys on New Year’s Eve

HOURS

NO FIRs96

AYUB KHAN, BOUNCER

(One of the two who helped Abbas)

When Abbas called us out, we saw

about 30 men, all dressed in black

leather jacket. They seemed drunk and

were calling the women names and try-

ing to surround them. A few were threat-

ening the boys, asking them to leave the

women and go, but the boys were ada-

mant and stayed back. We immediately

went to rescue and raised our voices at

the hooligans. They gathered together

and left the group on their own. The

group was taken care of by Abbas, while

the other bouncer and I threatened the

hooligans and kept them away. They

kept staring at us because they did not

know what to do and we were in uni-

form; they decided to back off. They did

not leave the place for a long time. We

stood there and made sure that they did

not follow the girls.

It would have been a tragedy had we

not reached out on time. There were no

policemen and the hooligans didn’t

seem afraid of anybody. Such incidents

are wrecking Bengaluru’s harmony. Po-

lice should be extra careful about such

situations. — As told to Mirror

| MC Abbas

FIRST PERSON

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A group of law students want to make city safe for women, without restricting their freedom

THE ED-VERSARY

How Bengaluru

police reacted to

BM’s story about

NYE horror

MS Dhoni quits as

ODI, T20 captain

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has

stepped down as captain of the

team in One-day Internationals

and T20 Internationals. The deci-

sion paves the way for the eleva-

tion of Virat Kohli to the post. Dho-

ni, however, will be available for

selection for the ODI and T20 se-

ries against England this month.

SPORTS I PAGE 13 »

NATION I PAGE 11 »

Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar,

who led the five-judge

Constitution bench in the

Supreme Court which had

struck down the controversial

NJAC Act for appointment of

judges, was on Wednesday

sworn in as the 44th Chief

Justice of India.

Jagdish Khehar

is first Sikh CJI

SRK, KJO, KAPIL SHARMA TURN

HOSTS FOR FILMFARE AWARDS P20

QUALIFIER DUMPS CILIC OUT

OF CHENNAI OPEN P13

NG 3.5PubDate: 05-01-2017Zone: BangaloreBSEdition: 1Page: MRBGFPUser: dattatreya.kulkarniTime: 01-04-2017 23:24Color:CMYK