PHOTO: NIVEDITHA
Raja Ram grabbed his daughter by her hair, kicked her continuously and slapped her. The girl's mother was also among the bystanders who watched as the young girl was beaten.
It was only when two female workers from a nearby firm wrestled the girl's father, Ram - a sub-inspector from Madurai police - off the girl and locked her in their car for 30 minutes, that the girl was rescued. No others had come forward to help the girl.
"We were shocked to see this man, well-built, kicking a girl in her groin repeatedly in public. We got off the car and my friend tried to push him away, while I tried to remove his hands from her hair," Niveditha and Archana said.
Despite the two females who tried to rescue the young girl, bystanders continued to watch and made no attempt to help.
"In his attempts to resist, the man was pushing us as well," Niveditha added.
Niveditha explained that there was a young man standing by, trying to help. Once they freed the girl, they asked him to help her get away.
"He had a helmet in his hand, so we told him to take her away on his bike. But then the father removed the key from the bike," she said.
Both the women then made attempts to hire an autorickshaw but were stopped by the father. They then resorted to locking themselves inside their car with the battered girl for thirty minutes.
"We wanted to get out of there, but he sat on our bonnet. There were so many people standing by, if one of them had removed him from the car, we could have taken her to safety. But no one did," said Niveditha, one of the women who rescued the girl.
PHOTO: NIVIDETHA
The police were called and turned up half an hour later. As they waited in the car, the girl retold the story of how the incident took place.
"She said her father was a sub-inspector with Madurai police and hearing the rumors he landed up at her hostel in the morning. He dragged her out of the hostel and started attacking her. She kept saying the rumors weren't true, but he wouldn't believe her," Niveditha recalled.
When the police eventually arrived, the family were taken to the police station where they confirmed the girl did not file a complaint and the father had been let go. When asked if there would be suomoto case against the father for the assault, police repeated - "the girl doesn't have any complaints."
PHOTO: NIVIDETHA
Niveditha took to social media to write about the incident and the Facebook post has been shared widely.
"He is a cop and he was beating up his daughter mercilessly. And then you have a crowd of people who are watching the drama without moving an inch. Makes you wonder what sort of society we live in," Niveditha said in her post.
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