812 'Romeos' in police net in 40 days

Patna: The Patna police arrested or detained at least 812 people for their alleged involvement in cases related to safety of women in the last 40 days during a special police drive in the district.

Police also lodged 76 cases and fined 285 vehicles for playing vulgar songs. Quite a number of ‘Romeos’ could not be booked as the women concerned did not lodge an FIR against their tormentors. “The accused and the victims in such cases were known to each other and the ‘dispute’ was ‘resolved’ before an FIR could be lodged,” a police officer said.

The arrests included 79 from Danapur, 77 from Pirbahore, 47 from Pataliputra, 46 from Khajekalan and 40 from Aghamkuan police station areas.

The drive was launched in early August at central range DIG Shalin’s behest. The IPS officer held several meetings in schools and sought to sensitize young girls and women, asking them to come forward and lodge complaints if they were facing harassment.

“During the drive, police arrested many students belonging to premier city schools. In several cases, the accused defended self saying the girl and he were earlier in a relationship,” Shalin told TOI and added, however, that prior acquaintance, even intimacy, did not give anyone the right to pounce upon a woman.

Quite a few arrested boys narrated their sob stories, accusing their victims of having spurned them. “The story of a jilted lover may evoke sympathy for men among men, but the law of our land does not recognise it as a valid excuse for assaulting or cyberbullying women,” Shalin said and also referred to the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer ‘Pink’ movie which strongly underlines the message that ‘No means no’.

Talking about the drive, police sources recalled the stir launched by students after one of them was arrested for allegedly stalking a girl student of a city college. “The accused produced chat messages as a ‘proof’ of his relationship with the girl who, he admitted, had broken up recently,” Shalin said and added police acted after the girl’s mother lodged a complaint because she disliked the guy.

“Nothing justifies the act of violating a woman’s safety,” the DIG said as he asked boys to beware.

According to National Crime Records Bureau, altogether 1,041 cases of rape were lodged in Bihar in the year 2015. In at least 954 of these cases, the offenders were known to the rape survivors.