Indian Woman Arrested after Suicide of Man She Accused of Sexual Misconduct

Police in the southern Indian state of Kerala have arrested a woman in connection with the suicide of a man she had accused of touching her inappropriately on a bus.

The arrest followed a complaint by the man’s family, who alleged that he faced online harassment after a social media video posted by the woman went viral.

Shimjitha Musthafa, 35, last week posted the video she recorded on the bus, offering it as evidence against Deepak U, 42, whom she accused of elbowing her on the breast.

In a country where sexual harassment of women in crowded public spaces is rampant, the footage sparked strong reactions, with many criticising Deepak. Two days later, he died by suicide.

Deepak’s friends and family say he had denied the accusations of sexual harassment and that he was innocent. They also said he was distressed by what they described as a “social media trial”.

The family also accused Musthafa – who is a social media content creator affiliated with a local political party, Indian Union Muslim League – of using the video to gain fame and followers. In another video uploaded before her arrest, Musthafa had denied this, saying she recorded and posted the first video “to highlight a serious social and mental issue”.

After Deepak’s mother lodged a complaint, police registered a case against Musthafa and invoked a non-bailable charge relating to abetment to suicide. On Wednesday, she was remanded to judicial custody for 14 days.

The Kerala state human rights commission has also directed the police in the state’s Kozhikode district to submit their investigation report in a week’s time.

Deepak’s suicide on 18 January, a day after he turned 42, has led to a huge outrage in India, with family, friends and men’s rights activists speaking out in his support.

“Deepak was too decent a person to do anything that would hurt anyone, leave alone a woman,” his friend Asgar Ali told BBC Hindi.

A sales representative with a textile company, Deepak was returning to Kozhikode last Friday when the alleged incident took place. Musthafa, who was travelling on the same bus, posted the video, accusing him of deliberately touching her body.

Ali said Deepak was “distraught” after this and had told him that he was too tired to even notice who was standing behind him in the crowded bus.

He added that Deepak had told him that he would meet a lawyer to initiate action against Musthafa.

Deepak’s cousin Jijil Vijay said, “He was the only child. His parents are unable to speak. His mother’s health is not good.”

Following Deepak’s death, Musthafa put out a second video alleging that Deepak had crossed the “sexual boundary” in the bus they were travelling in. “It was neither an accident nor a misunderstanding,” she said.

She added that she recorded the video because she saw a girl in front of her who was disturbed by Deepak’s alleged actions. “So, I opened my camera and started shooting his actions. He had seen me taking the video. He stood still when he saw me shooting.”

The incident has also triggered a heated debate on social media, with sharply differing views expressed by users.

X user Jaison Philip wrote that “elbowing the breasts” of women was a “time-tested strategy by perverts”. “Even when I was in my teens, my classmates used to demonstrate, to my horror, how this can be done to practically any girl walking on the road/public transport.”

He added that while men’s rights activists were “tearing the woman apart” on social media, he felt that she “was well within her rights to record, what she thinks was a sexual assault”.

Philip was responding to a post by another user, Suraj Kumar Bauddh, who had written that “social media trial killed a youth”. Baudhh argued that the video did not conclusively establish sexual harassment and that Deepak took his own life because “he could not tolerate the public shame and character assassination”.

Several women have also shared their experiences of being sexually harassed or assaulted in public spaces after watching the video. Others have questioned why Musthafa recorded and posted the video instead of confronting the man or complaining to the police.

Source: BBC

Click to read: https://opemsuo.com/author/hajara-fuseini/