A JAPANESE female tourist was recently manhandled by a group of boys during the annual Holi festival at Paharganj in New Delhi, India.
What was supposed to be an enlightening, fun experience for the young woman turned into a traumatizing one when things got out of line with the boys groping and shoving her around, taking turns doing so.
In the video shared on Twitter, a young boy was shown grabbing her face and shoving it down while another smashed what seemed like an egg on her head, amid chants of “Holi Hai”.
Then was pushed and groped around in the chest area by other men in the rowdy group until she slapped one of them and fled into an alley. During the ordeal, the poor woman had screamed and repeatedly said “it hurts” in Japanese.
“She clearly was forced as she slapped at the end and this shows a very negative image of festival and country,” user @Sraj101 captioned the video uploaded on the social media platform.
Meanwhile, the incident had sparked an outcry not only in India but globally, condemning the group of boys for their rough, ill-mannered conduct towards a woman.
The original video was posted by the tourist herself on her Twitter page @megumiko_india however was deleted after receiving an overwhelming amount of responses.
“I tweeted a video of the Indian festival Holi, but after that, the number of RTs (retweets) and DMs (direct messages) increased more than I had imagined, and I was terrified, so I deleted the tweet,” she said.
Not only that, she posted an update saying that she is currently in Bangladesh and doing well in “mind and body”.
The chairman of the Delhi Commission for Women, Swati Maliwal, said in a Twitter post that she will ensure the perpetrators are held accountable.
“I will not spare any of them no matter what happens. We will make sure one of these ruffians will end up behind bars,” she said in her post.
The National Commission of Women had also posted on Twitter calling for the Delhi Police to launch an investigation into the incident.
“@NCWIndia has taken cognizance. Chairperson @sharmarekha has written to @CPDelhi to immediately file FIR in the matter.
“NCW has also sought a fair and time-bound investigation in the matter. A detailed report must be apprised to the Commission,” the commission said in their post.
Delhi Police said that three boys, including a minor were arrested after being identified in the viral video and have confessed to being involved in the incident, India Today reported.
Any legal action taken against the perpetrators will be based on merits and in line with the woman’s complaint, if any provided.
