Mumbai Woman Strips In Elevator To Avoid Being Taken To Police Station Without Lady Constable

Our legal system, keeping the safety of women in mind, has included a provision that every woman needs to be aware of. According to Section 160 of the Criminal Procedure Code, a woman has the right to not be physically present in a police station for interrogation. The law provides for a police officer who is accompanied by a female constable to take a woman’s statement at her residence, in the presence of family or friends.

Furthermore, the Supreme Court has ruled that no woman can be arrested without a female constable present, or before 6 am and after 6 pm during the day.

In an incident that has gotten the social media debating over it, a woman from a housing society in Andheri, Mumbai resorted to partially stripping in an elevator to stop cops from taking her to the police station.

The woman, who goes by the name Megha Sharma, is an aspiring model from Dehradun. According to TOI, She got into an altercation with a security guard in her building, following which she dialed 100 to complain to the police.

A team from Oshiwara police station arrived at the scene, and the stripping debacle ensued.

https://www.facebook.com/megha.sharma.3348/videos/2150301411689389/

The woman tweeted that the cops forced her to come to the police station. However, since there was no female constable present, she declined to go with them.

https://twitter.com/MeghaSh77484473/status/1055893355283050501

She claims to have told the cops that since it was late in the night, she would consult a lawyer friend of hers first and then come to the station the next day to file her complaint.

She claimed that when the cops continued to force her to come to the police station, and the security guard involved kept stopping the elevator and not let her go home, she resorted to shaming them by stripping.

She hoped that they would be embarrassed and finally leave her alone.

According to some reports, the woman, who lives as a paying guest in the posh housing society, had asked the security guard to fetch her some cigarettes over the intercom. However, when he refused, she came downstairs and got into a fight with him.

The guard claims that the woman assaulted him. There is CCTV footage of what went down between the woman and the guard.

With both sides of the story being thus presented, people seem to be divided over who is right and who is wrong here.

No one was taken to police station. Policeman visited the housing society after receiving a call on Dial 100 about a commotion in the lobby of the concerned housing society.

— Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) October 27, 2018

The woman’s statement was eventually recorded. It remains to be seen what happens next. Megha Sharma has labelled what transpired with her as #MeToo. However, people on social media are calling it a misuse of the movement, particularly after watching the video or her assaulting the security guard. While others claim that the police officers where wrong in not bringing along a woman constable with them, even if all they wanted to do was investigate, as that is the law.

A rather precarious debate now ensues.