Bengaluru: After the narrow lanes of S.G Palya and some deserted highways, some of our parks in the city too have become ‘flash points’ for perverts. The last few weeks have been extremely stressful for morning walkers and joggers in Agara Park, as an unidentified man holds a ‘show’ for women. The onlookers rue that the pervert pulls down his pant and waits for women walkers to pass by as he flashes himself.
On Monday, when the bizarre incident repeated yet again, Kavita Reddy, a resident of HSR Layout and a citizen activist, managed to chase the pervert and click his pictures. Recalling the incident, she said, “Around 7 am on Monday, I saw women closing their eyes and making faces as they passed a shady corner in the park. After a point I was surprised to see even men walk away quickly as they passed that corner. Curiously I stepped forward and was alarmed to see a man showing off his genitals. I quickly chased him and even clicked pictures. But before I could catch hold of him, he jumped out of the park.”
Minutes later only when Kavita confronted the women walkers did she realise that this has been going on for the last few months. The recently damaged fence of the park is the reason behind such perverts entering the park, observed Kavita.
She said, “A few months ago, the BBMP damaged the park fence while desilting some drains. Eventually, it started dumping garbage and although the park is on the main road, it became extremely unsafe for women as the garbage heaps covered an entire portion of the park. All our requests to BBMP officials to repair the park fencing have fallen on deaf ears.”
Kavita stresses that despite a security guard watching the park premises, it was tough to keep such perverts at bay since anybody could access the park through the broken fence. The Agara Park has a walking radius of 2.5 km and a single guard couldn’t watch out the entire park all through the day, rue the walkers. While the walkers and Kavita have raised their voices against the apathy of BBMP officials in fixing the fence, the BBMP officials concerned only maintained they will look into the matter.
