National karate champion beats up Haryana cop for sexual harassment
21-year-old Neha Jangra, a national-level karate champion from Haryana, beat up a constable from the Haryana police in Rohtak after he tried to sexually harass her in a shared auto-rickshaw late on Thursday night. Following the incident, the cop was suspended, placed under arrest, and a case has been registered against him. Here's more on Jangra's valiant stand against attempted sexual harassment.
Details of the incident
Neha Jangra had represented Haryana at the 10th National Level Open Karate Championship 2017 held in Goa in December 2017 and had won a gold medal. She was on her way back from karate practice when the constable boarded the auto-rickshaw she was in, and tried befriending her. After repeated refusals, when he didn't relent Jangra beat up the cop and dragged him to a women's police station.
Women's police station tried dissuading Jangra from lodging a complaint
After dragging the constable to the nearest women's police station with the help of the auto driver, Jangra tried lodging a complaint. However, the woman SHO, inspector Sunita Devi, dissuaded Jangra from filing an official complaint on the grounds that it'd ruin both the cop's career and his marital life. The matter was finally resolved on Friday and a complaint was registered.
The importance of self-defense training for women
Jangra's use of self-defense is probably a testament to the importance of training girls in self-defense techniques in the face of an ill-functioning institutional system for dealing with sexual harassment. In 2017, the Delhi High Court had asked the government to introduce self-defense classes for girls in schools, and explore the feasibility of integrating such classes within school curriculum.
