Eve-teaser in Hyderabad gets novel punishment

Suresh Dharur

Tribune News Service

Hyderabad, January 10

In a novel punishment for eve-teasing, a local court ordered an offender to stand at a busy junction in the city with a poster in hand, asking people not to harass women.

“End it now…Stop eve-teasing,” says the poster in English and another one in Urdu. The curious onlookers were thrilled to know that the bearded person holding that socially pertinent poster was himself an offender.

Mohammad Raheem (39) of Moula Ali area in the city has been harassing a married woman in his locality for a long time. He kept calling the victim from different phone numbers and stalked her when her husband was not at home. The harassment continued even after the woman changed her mobile SIM card several times.

After she stopped using her mobile phone, the stalker started calling her husband, asking him to hand over the phone to his wife. This led to fissures in her married life. The woman finally lodged a complaint with the “She Team”, an all-women city police unit dedicated for protection of women from harassment.

“We finally nabbed Raheem and a case has been booked against him,” said Swathi Lakra, Additional Commissioner of Police.

The Special Metropolitan Magistrate convicted Raheem and directed him to stand at a busy traffic junction for one full day, holding posters to create awareness about the issue.

“She Teams” of the city police have so far nabbed 848 men found harassing women on the roads.