Two female students of Delhi University, belonging from the Northeast, were allegedly harassed and called ‘Coronavirus’ by a group of six men at Kamla Nagar, near DU’s North Campus.
The victims alleged that when they tried to take the matter to the local police, they were not sensitive enough and tried to normalise the issue and didn’t do anything to help the girls.
The incident, which happened on March 3, was reported by News Laundry.
The victims said that the men, who were on motorbikes, tossed water balloons at them with a clear intention of sexually harassing them. As one of the students removed her mask, the men screamed, “Aye, Coronavirus!”.
“They threw balloons at my friend and me. We had a male friend with us but they threw the balloons only at us, aiming at our private parts. They saw that I had Mongoloid features after I took off my pollution mask. After that they screamed, ‘Aye, coronavirus!’ I was too shocked to react,” one of the women, who studies at Hansraj College, was reported as saying by News Laundry.
The women said that when they called the Delhi Police Northeast helpline, the authorities told them that a PCR van would be sent to their location. However, the cops in the PCR van dismissed the matter as being a ‘regular Holi incident’ and advised the students to carry sticks with them for self-defence.
This isn’t the first instance of students from the Northeast being called ‘Coronavirus’. In February, Northeastern students of Delhi University’s Kirori Mal College were called “Coronavirus” by a group of fellow students.
