Night of shame continues……

However, my statement didn’t cut any ice with anyone present. On the contrary, the body language of the press reporters, with whom I had always had cordial relations, had suddenly changed. It was a foreboding of things to come.

With my coming to the forefront by addressing the media, the focus of the public shifted from the Vasant Vihar police station to the police headquarters. Quite a few from amongst the crowds, on learning of the four arrests, were of the view that it was now time to show solidarity with the rape victim and pray for her rather than protest. They gathered at India Gate with lit candles and placards against rape, demanding safety for women. As it always happens in such situations, riding on popular sentiment, political groups were getting involved and the crowds continued to swell. A certain party, harried by charges of large-scale corruption, thought it was the right time to divert public attention and began  to participate in the protests. Lumpen elements, as is their wont, joined the otherwise peaceful crowds, making them belligerent and offensive.

In a way it was good for our investigation that the police station in Vasant Vihar was no longer under siege and the police team there could now move about easily. But officers working at the police headquarters, particularly I myself, found it difficult to reach and leave our offices. We often had to play cat and mouse with the by then not-so-decent press persons to evade them.

Sharing information about our successes in the investigation and the four arrests failed to make any impression on the crowds that continued to swell outside the headquarters. India Gate was another venue where largely young people began to gather in large numbers to demonstrate peacefully.

To be continued…...