New Year’s eve and sexual assault

January 8, 2008
Looking Glass 
Namita Bhandare writes that there is a sense of déjà vu both in the facts of sexual molestation on the streets and in the realization that after the first burst of public anger, the molesters will get away
It was a night of unending horrors. First came what is now known as the Juhu molestation case.
Here’s the story: On New Year’s Eve, two couples were walking outside the JW Marriott Hotel in Mumbai. A crowd of men accosts them, one of the women retaliates verbally, the men get furious, tear their clothes and, in full public view, grope and molest the women. Two HT photographers are in the area on assignment. They photograph the incident, and lodge a police complaint. Fourteen men have been booked.