Why woman out late, asks top BJP leader on Chandigarh stalking

New Delhi: Ramveer Bhatti, Haryana BJP Vice president has come up with a shocking statement questioning why women were allowed to stay out late.

He was reacting to the case in which Vikas Barala, son of the state BJP Chief Subhash Barala, was accused of stalking a woman.

‘Parents must take care of their children... they shouldn't allow them to roam at night. Children should come home on time, why stay out at night?" Bhatti asked.

Chhattisgarh police said that the CCTV footage from five of the cameras along the route on which the woman was stalked were all found to be ‘non-functional’. The recordings according to the police, will prove to be the main evidences in the case. The five cameras were among the 50 per cent other CCTVs not working since July 24.

The 29-year old woman, daughter of a bureaucrat, had accused Vikas Barala of stalking her and trying to kidnap her. In a Facebook post that has gone viral, she describs in detail how the two men, 23-year old Barala and his friend chased her down the streets of Chandigarh in a white SUV after midnight on Friday.

The woman, a disc jockey, was driving home from the Sector-8 market around 12.15 am on Friday night and crossed road into Sector 7 when she noticed an SUV chasing her. Barala, a law student was in the driver’s seat in the white Tata Safari Storme and his friend Ashish Kumar was with him.

"The boy came out of the safari and tried to open my door, banged my window... To me it was very clear that these boys intended to abduct me even tried to open the door," she wrote in her Facebook post.

When a police car responded to her frantic calls, one of the men was banging on her window and trying to open the door. The police, she wrote, managed to intercept the car and catch the young men.

The two men were arrested on charges of stalking under section 354D of the Indian Penal Code and drunken driving under section 185 of the Motor Vehicle Act, from the Housing Board Chowk in Manimjara, minutes after the girl called 100 while driving.

In her post, the woman wrote: ‘I'm lucky, it seems, to not be the daughter of a common man, because what chance would they have against such VIPs? I'm also lucky, because I'm not lying raped and murdered in a ditch somewhere. If this can happen in Chd, it can happen anywhere'.

She also addressed fellow women: “LADIES! Please be proactive about your own safety; NOTE THE NUMBER OF ANY VEHICLE THAT TRIES TO HARASS YOU. DON’T BE AFRAID to call the cops, The minute it starts! Call your parents, if possible, and let them know where you are and the situation you’re in. Try and run away, in the safest way possible. YOUR LIFE IS PARAMOUNT! If he walks towards you, use whatever you can as a weapon.”

She added that she was “never a big fan of weapons, till last night”: “Whether it’s a gun or mace or taser or a golf club or a knife, it’s going to make you feel safer and more confident. STAY SAFE, LADIES!”

Though she complained about the intention of the men to abduct her, the police have only added a "wrongful restraint" charge to her original FIR of stalking. The two accused are therefore out on bail.