Gwalior Woman Pushed Off Train For Resisting Sexual Assault

A Gwalior-based woman and her relative were forcibly pushed off a moving train by five men after the woman resisted being sexually assaulted by them. The incident happened on Monday on a train between Muzaffarpur and Surat, Gujarat.

The police said on Thursday that the woman in her complaint with the Bilua police station claimed that five unidentified men tried to sexually assault her while she and her relative were travelling from Jharkhand to Surat.

Gwalior Woman Pushed From Train

An argument arose between the woman and the accused, leading to the men trying to sexually assault her. She also alleged that the accused took pictures of her without her consent.

When the woman objected, the accused had beaten her male relative. In an attempt to avoid conflict, the woman and her relative changed seats and sat near the train’s gate.

However, the accused group of men followed them and continued to harass the woman by pulling her saree. The woman’s clothes were forcibly removed, and she was left semi-naked. The accused then pushed her and her relative off the moving train.

Both the woman and her relative were unconscious throughout the night near Barodi village until they were spotted by some local villagers. They were immediately rushed to the nearby hospital on Tuesday morning.

Based on the woman’s complaint, the Bilua police have registered a complaint against the five unidentified men. The police team headed by Superintendent of Police Rajesh Singh Chandel has instructed the Sub-divisional Police Officer (SDOP) in charge of Bilaua to form a team and investigate the matter.

Gwalior SP Rajesh Singh Chandel said that the police were trying to ascertain the number of passengers in the train and identify the accused who committed the heinous crime. He added that the police are also looking at the CCTV footage.

Why Didn't Anyone Intervene?

Although nothing more about the alleged incident is available as of now, why didn't anyone intervene when this incident happened? There would have obviously been people around; the woman and her relative even changed seats to avoid aggravating the issue, so there's a large possibility that people would have noticed the incident.

Didn't anyone feel the need to stop the accused when they were forcibly removing the woman's clothes? Commuters are largely concerned about couples engaging in consensual public displays of affection but don't seem to have the audacity to prevent a woman from being harassed. Why is sexual harassment, especially in public transport, so normalised that people have grown numb to it?

Also, why do men perceive women as vulnerable beings who can be easily attacked by violating their modesty? A man had an argument with a woman for some reason and he immediately resorted to doing something to violate her modesty. Attaching a woman's dignity to her body has encouraged men to resort to sexual violence to get back at women. It's about time society stops doing that!

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