Women rescue girl from molestors, police reach after the drama

NAGPUR: While three women who fought four youths valiantly to rescue a 14-year-old girl from being molested at Ajni railway quarters', the city police ended with egg on their face by reaching the place half-an-hour late even after being informed immediately.
One of the assailants has been arrested but Ajni police could not nab the other accomplices several hours after the incident.This lackadaisical attitude of cops, against the backdrop of nationwide campaign against atrocities on women, left the braveheart women aghast. A bunch of women, part of BJP women's wing which included their corporator and ward members, got into real life action to rescue a Std VIII student from the clutches of four miscreants.
The girl Vimla (name changed) was returning home on her cycle after paying electricity bill on Wednesday afternoon. On way she stopped to have some water from a community hall. However, seeing a wedding was underway inside, she turned back. At this point, Vimla was taunted by four persons consuming liquor in the premises. The men, part of groom's entourage, stalked her until they reached the lane outside. The men, apart from passing lewd comments, are also learnt to have pulled Vimla towards a desolate place in the lane ignoring her protests. They allegedly tried to disrobe her even as she desperately tried to stave them off.
Just then Sangeeta Pandey saw her. She immediately alerted BJP's president of Ward 51 (central jail area) Pooja Tiwari on phone while she herself went bravely to rescue the girl. The men severely beat her up too but she kept the fight. Meanwhile, Pooja and her aunt Meena Mishra also reached the place and joined Sangeeta in the fight.
The three women fought four men who were hurling abuses and also thrashing them. "We were getting beaten but were not ready to give up at any cost," said Pooja. She informed VNIT ward's BJP corporator Ashwini Jichkar and former BJP corporator Sanjay Tiwari.
"Our resistance scared away the men. As they fled, we managed to catch one. The man was misbehaving with us we held on to him. The other three fled inside the marriage hall. We followed them there but the marriage party was trying to shield the culprits. Sanjay Tiwari and his supporters, who had reached the place by now, convinced the aggressive marriage party to co-operate," said Pooja.
She also added that police were informed immediately but they did not show up for around half-an-hour. While Pooja argued with marriage party members, Meena helped the girl put on clothes. Later, Meena and Pooja threatened to stop the wedding ceremony unless the culprits were handed over to police. Several other BJP members including Kishore Wankhede, corporators Sharad Bante, Sumitrabai Jadhav, Munna Yadav and others too reached the place. Ajni police, who had reached by then, whisked away Jeevan Paraskar, the assailant whom the women had caught.
Senior inspector RM Katole of Ajni police said police have registered offence against Paraskar and two of his accomplices while the women stated there were three more with him.