The number of things that are wrong with our country could fill multiple books (it probably has).
One of the most disconcerting things is when we fall prey to our emotions on matters like religion, caste, and gender. We love condemning people to judgements and punishments even if it means taking the law into our hands, law enforcement and judiciary be damned.
What’s worse is when this condemnation is reserved for someone who’s actually on the right side of the law and doing their bit for the society.
In a shocking incident, a 45-year-old techie and her friend were lynched by an angry mob for attempting to bust an illegal cow slaughterhouse in Talaghattapura, south Bengaluru.
Nandini M of Koramangala and her friend Rijil, 33, both software engineers, were travelling in the latter’s Innova when they spotted something suspicious at Tipu Circle. They saw 14 cows being transported to a slaughterhouse and rushed to the police station to report it.
Once they had lodged a complaint, she was told that a team of 15-20 policemen had gone to the spot to apprehend the culprits and save the cows. But this was a far cry from reality.
According to an interview she gave to Republic TV, Nandini offered to assist the investigation by offering to lead the cops to the spot where the illegal slaughterhouse was located. However, she was told that all the police cars were already out on the field.
So instead, it was just Nandini, Rijil and TWO policeman in Nandini’s car that headed towards the slaughterhouse.
But what happened next was something the two good samaritans couldn’t have fathomed.
Upon reaching the narrow lane which apparently led to dead end, Nandini saw that a crowd of about 100 people had gathered outside the slaughterhouse.
She assumed that since the police was there, inquisitive people might have gathered to find out what was happening. Alas, that wasn’t the case!
None of those ’15-20 policemen’ that they were told about were in sight except for the two cops sitting in Nandini’s car. And the crowd was, in fact, an angry mob which began pelting boulder-sized slabs of concrete at the car.
Yes! The very car there were two policemen sitting in!
Nandini claimed that the moment the first boulder hit the car, the two cops abandoned them there and left.
According to a report by Times Now, there were pro-Pakistani slogans shouted as well, which seems quite astonishing considering this was absolutely unrelated. Both Nandini and her friend were badly injured and their car was completely trashed.
Nandini has now blamed the cops for inaction and believes that she and her friend was setup.
She has filed a complaint about the mob-lynching which the police will be looking into along with more details about the illegally run slaughterhouse. However, Nandini is not happy with the way the police has handled the situation.
This is a very big price to pay for trying to uphold the law. And the apathy of the police to the situation just makes it worse. But the most sickening thing of all is how 100 people ganged up to bash two people, one of which was a woman.
Is this what she deserved for trying to foil an illegal activity? Why didn’t the two constables stay there and protect them? Why were the two lied to about 15-20 cops being present on the scene in the first place?
Social media is rife with outrage; some talking about how this would be a bigger issue if the woman was of a different religion or vice versa.
But the answers seem lost in all the noise. All we can hope for is that justice is served and the culprits are apprehended.