The eve-teasers were booked on the spot and told to appear before court to pay the fines
Bengaluru: The city police, who launched a drive against eve-teasing on Saturday, booked 830 men in two days. The numbers were not available for Monday, but senior police officials told Deccan Chronicle that it could cross 1,200.
The city police rounded up around 350 men on Saturday and 480 on Sunday. They have been booked under various provisions of the Karnataka Police Act (KPAct). Till 6 pm on Monday, around 85 people were rounded up in the West Division, and 106 people in East Division.
The police targeted eve-teasers near schools, colleges, malls and shopping centres. Two teams from each police division, with five to six policemen in each team, carried out the drive. The policemen were dressed in mufti to avoid alerting trouble-mongers. The teams included a woman police inspector and women police staff.
The eve-teasers were booked on the spot and told to appear before court to pay the fines.
The police took up the drive after a spate of molestation and eve-teasing cases in the city. Recently, a man was caught for sexually harassing a woman in Garuda Mall, while at the International Wine Festival in Jayamahal Palace, two men were arrested for harassing a woman.
New guidelines for schools, colleges
After an 11-point guideline to government and private schools, City Police Commissioner M.N. Reddi has issued directions to school and college managements to install surveillance cameras at the entry and exit points to keep a check on eve-teasers. Mr Reddi said, “The jurisdictional police officers have been asked to coordinate with Resident Welfare Associations and NGOs to create awareness among girl students.” The police will soon distribute pamphlets containing information on safety guidelines and phone numbers of policemen to women and girls. The police will also put out banners and erect billboards at strategic locations alerting women, he said.
Criminal cases against offenders
- “Habitual offenders will be booked under criminal acts and the police will also open a rowdy sheet against them,” said Mr Alok Kumar, Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order).
- Majority of mischief mongers are either unemployed men or students who loiter at vulnerable places like colleges, malls, parks and bus stands. Most of them are in the 22-25 age group, the police said. The police said for every 25 eve-teasers caught, seven to eight were educated and from wealthy families.
