Delhi Police has taken serious note of a video in which a Japanese woman is suspected to be ‘groped’ and ‘harassed’ by a group of rowdy boys playing Holi in the Paharganj area of the national capital. Delhi Police has written to the Japanese Embassy to ascertain the victim’s identity in order to take action against the youth.
The video of a woman who is stated to be from Japan and works as a travel blogger – has gone viral on social media – where she is seen besieged by a group of boys playing Holi. According to her Twitter bio she is from Osaka, Japan, and is 22- years old. She posts videos of her solo travel on Youtube.
The victim shared the video of her Holi experience with the tweet, “Celebrating the arrival of spring, this festival involves throwing colored powder and water at each other, regardless of caste, age, or gender. That’s what I’m talking about. For the first time in my life, an egg was thrown at me and I was harassed.”
Soon the video was shared by many and caused outrage on the internet with netizens stating that such behavior is not representative of Indian culture. However, later she deleted the video.
Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal also tweeted about the incident, without sharing the video. She also said that she will be writing to Delhi Police about the incident.
In the afternoon, Delhi Police central district took note of the video and said that they have written to the Japanese Embassy.
Delhi Police stated, “A tweet posted from Twitter handle @iramsubramanian has come to notice which contains a video of Holi wherein few people are seen playing Holi with a foreigner girl. The girl seems uncomfortable with their actions.”
“The video attached to the said tweet has been posted on several digital platforms. Cognizance of the video has been taken and at first hand, the video is being analyzed to ascertain the requisite details,” said police in its statement.
Police further said prima-facie, on the basis of landmarks seen in the video, it seems that the video was shot in Paharganj. However, it is being verified on the ground whether any such incident took place in that area or whether the video is old. “No complaint or call relating to any kind of misbehaviour with any foreigner has been received in Paharganj police station. An e-mail has been sent to the Japanese embassy requesting help in establishing the identity of the girl or any other detail about the incident,” it said.
A police officer also said that ACP (Paharganj and SHO (Paharganj) have also been asked to collect the details of Japanese foreigners staying in the area and to establish the identity of the boys seen in the video through beat/division officers and local intelligence. Once the incident and details are verified, action will be taken on merits, the officer added.
The police sources said they will also take help from her Twitter account to approach the victim.