Did Delhi police detain, assault women during anti-rape protests?

A mother and daughter duo from New Delhi, Usha and Shambhavi Saxena have alleged that the Delhi Police illegally detained and assaulted them on 25 December while they were part of a protest rally seeking stronger laws to combat sexual assault and justice for the survivor of the horrific gangarape. The duo had they had joined a protest rally at India Gate when they received word that some girls had been arrested and taken to the Parliament Street Police Station. They allege that when they tried to get these girls released, the policemen turned violent, assaulted them and had them illegally detained. The mother, Usha Saxena has written a letter on Kafila to Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, highlighting the assault and illegal detention. She writes: [caption id=“attachment_570342” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image of the protests witnessed in Delhi. AP[/caption]

All of us linked our arms and were being dragged away when I saw a female constable dragging a girl by her hair. My daughter Shambhavi ran to help her and before my eyes I saw a male cop and a female cop pulling my daughter’s hair and hitting her head against a wall I managed to extricate myself and ran towards the 2 young girls to protect them and we managed to get them away…we were then pushed into a small room where we found 4 other women detained earlier – they also recounted how they were slapped and their clothes torn while they were dragged here.

Shambhavi also tweeted about her ordeal which has caused a furore on social media. The two allege that the police gave no reason for arresting the women who were just protesting peacefully. They’ve also stated that the police threatened them against revealing what happened to anyone else. The incident took place at the Parliament Street Police Station. When Firstpost spoke with Taj Hasan, joint commissioner of police, New Delhi range he confirmed that eight women were detained on the day but denied the allegations of assault. “Eight girls were detained around 5pm as a preventive action as they were trying to march towards India Gate,” he said, adding that they were released soon afterwards. New Delhi has seen a spate of protests since the 16 December gangrape of a 23-year-old girl who was also assaulted brutally. For all the latest developments in the case please click here to follow our live blog.