Delhi Man Assaults Fiance, Calls It Lover's Quarrel: How Long Will Abuse Remain 'Internal Matter'?

Recently, a video from Delhi went viral in which a man was seen assaulting and shoving a woman inside a cab in the middle of the road. The man grabbed her t-shirt and punched her. Despite heavy traffic, nobody intervened in the matter.

The incident reportedly happened in North West Delhi's Mangolpuri area. The man misbehaved with the woman in the middle of the road with the crowd just watching and doing nothing. Once again raised questions about how safe women are in the national capital. How something like this happens in the middle of the road and no one dared to intervene? Besides, police also take time to get to the roots of the conflict. Haven't Delhi learnt its lesson? With increasing crime why police are always missing? When the video went viral, the Delhi Police launched a probe to track the cab and the couple. However, when the police tracked the woman down and inquired her about the incident, she claimed that it was a mere quarrel with her fiance and that they have sorted things between them.

Suggested Reading: Bajrang Dal Disrupts A Ladies' Party: Now Women Cannot Even Party Alone?

Delhi Man Assaults Fiance

The woman thanked Delhi Police for looking out for her. She reiterated it was a misunderstanding over a personal matter and now they have patched up. The gratitude seems exaggerated considering that it took days for Delhi police to track them down despite having all the resources. Matters like this require urgent action, what if it becomes too late and things turn fatal? Not only that, they did not take any action against the man for behaving in such a way with a woman in public. How Long Will Abuse Remain an 'Internal Issue'? Whether the man is her fiance or not, assault is a criminal offence but seems like the police do not understand this.

The entire incident happened in the middle of the road with busy traffic but nobody tried to save the woman from the assault. People made videos but never occurred to them that now the man is pushing and punching her in the cab, and can do much worse when alone. They did not step up to ask what was going on and tell the man it was no way of behaving with a woman, fiance or not. What if, this has turned into a Shraddha Walker-like incident? People get heated over the internet but when it happens in front of their eyes, escape giving excuse being of personal matters. Abusing and assaulting anyone is a criminal offence and needs to be punished irrespective of the relationship.

People usually have this problematic mindset that they should not intervene in the matters of couples. They claim that they will sort it out on their own which is why simple misunderstandings soon turn into assault. In cases of assault by a fiance or domestic abuse, the survivor usually looks for someone to lean on and bring the out of the situation but family members or even witnesses of the abuse tend to keep their mouth shut to not get involved in the mess, depriving them of any support they might get. This incident was a case of domestic assault and there is a high chance that the woman was convinced to keep her mouth shut or manipulated or threatened to not go against her fiance.

If the police have been faster and more active, they could have told her that there was nothing to fear and that they will provide her protection and support her. If the public was woke enough to stop the assault then and there on the busy road and made her realise that she had the support of people around her. If only the man was confronted with his vile behaviour with the woman and punished for his offence, maybe the woman would have stood up for her respect instead of giving in to assault. Because the fiance can be so abusive before marriage, imagine what he could do after marriage.

Though it was their personal matter and irrespective of what happened between them, violence and force are unacceptable. It is unfortunate to see the woman standing for her fiance. No one in this world should be able to exert physical violence on anyone. Such toxic relationships cannot be called love, and women need to stop putting it under the rug.