A 15-year-old girl was allegedly harassed by police on the pretext of a search operation following the communal violence in the Haldwani district of Uttarakhand.
A video has come forward on social media platforms where a group of women along with the teenager accuse the police of sexually harassing the minor.
“I told them to spare her, she is too young. They did not listen. They took her to a separate corner. That’s when she started crying,” said the victim’s mother.
The minor girl has accused two male policemen of touching her “inappropriately” in the garb of taking out her phone from her pockets.
“They took me to a corner, asking me whether I knew stone pelters. I replied I did not know anything. I had a mobile phone in my pocket. They started touching me on the thighs in the garb of taking out the phone,” she said.
On February 9, communal clashes broke out after the Haldwani district administration razed down a mosque and a madrasa claiming it was built on encroached land.
Several Muslim women stood before bulldozers in an attempt to prevent the demolitions and were forcefully dragged and beaten by both male and female police officers, angering the local community.
The Muslim community even requested the authorities hand over the Quran and other sacred properties to the Imam before demolition. However, the plea was also reportedly rejected.
Once the demolition began, local Muslims pelted stones, and the workers who were present on the spot were injured. But there is also evidence highlighting that police also resorted to attacking the crowd with stones, the report claimed.
The incident took place in Banbhoolpura town of Haldwani. The clashes resulted in the death of six people and hundreds injured. Internet services were shut down and Section 144 was imposed to maintain law and order.
On February 17, the Haldwani police confiscated the houses of nine individuals, including the alleged mastermind Abdul Malik. Malik had constructed the madrasa and mosque and had filed a writ petition in the Uttarakhand High Court seeking a withdrawal of the demolition order.
