Manager of Chinese restaurant and bar in Connaught Place assaults staffer for watching TV, attacks her with a fork
Allegedly almost half the women sexually harassed in the national capital and its neighbourhood are from the northeast. And the numbers are only increasing.
Mark of a monster: The girl from the northeast was allegedly attacked
with a fork and molested by the eatery's manager after an altercation.
pic/mid day
The manager of a renowned Chinese restaurant and bar - Wow Restaurant and Bar -- allegedly molested a girl from the northeast inside the eatery on Sunday for watching television during duty hours.
Sonam (name changed) works as a waitress with the restro-bar situated in the L Block of the circular shopping arcade. Annoyed with Sonam for watching television on the first floor of the eatery, manager Rohit Sharma first hurled abuses at her and then pushed her from the chair she was sitting on. He then reportedly tried to get "physical" with her.
"He in fact tried to rape me. When I raised an alarm other staff members came for my help and released me from his clutches," Sonam claimed.
Sonam, a native of Manipur, lives with her brother and cousin in the Kotla Mubarakpur area of south Delhi. She claimed she was alone on the first floor of the restaurant when the incident occurred.
"It was not just a sexual assault, when I tried to resist him, Rohit attacked me with a fork," Sonam said, showing bruise marks on her neck and bosom.
Bruised: Sonam has vowed to teach a lesson to her attacker. pic/mid day
Rohit rejected the charge of sexual assault and molestation as baseless. He told MiD DAY that Sonam was trying to defame him and was implicating her in a false case. But he did concede that he scolded her. "Sonam did not work properly. She was watching TV, which is only for customers who visit this restaurant. When I tried to reason with her she started shouting at me. I never attacked her, leave alone with a fork. I don't know how she suffered those injuries," the restaurant manager said.
He admitted he scolded Sonam for watching TV during duty hours and also because she wanted to leave early. Rohit counter-alleged that Sonam herself was carrying a fork and tried to hit him.
"She wanted to hit me with a fork. Maybe it was then that she suffered those injuries," claimed Rohit.
Sonam on the other hand remained adamant that Rohit assaulted her sexually. "Even the police lodged an FIR under sections that are not for a complaint regarding an attempted rape. They registered it under sections 354/323 of IPC. Due to the cops, Rohit is still roaming free," said Sonam.
| Blast from the past | | * In October 2009, Pushpam Sinha - an IIT Delhi PhD scholar - killed and burnt Ramchanphy Hongry, a Naga teenager, after she reportedly ignored his advances.
* In September 2007, there was a huge outcry when three northeastern girls were molested in the Delhi University campus.
* In May 2005, a 19-year-old Delhi University student from the northeast was raped by four men in a moving car after they dragged her from a roadside eatery in south Delhi's Dhaula Kuan area. The sensational case made headlines for days. | A police officer investigating the incident said they had immediately lodged an FIR as soon the victim approached them. He said Rohit has not been arrested so far as they were taking statements from witnesses to establish the claims of the complainant.
"Sonam was taken to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital for a medical examination. We will go through the MLC report to check how the girl suffered injuries. As soon as we get something concrete against Rohit, we will arrest him," said a senior police officer.
Sonam, had been working with the restaurant for the past three months, vowed that she wanted to teach a lesson to Rohit. "Now I don't want to go back on duty. They did not remove me from my post. I left the job myself," said Sonam.
85,000 Population of people from the northeast in Delhi-NCR
4,000 Estimated number of students from the northeast who take admissions in DU each year | Hall of shame | | In a recent joint Reuters/Ipsos global survey of about 12,000 people in 24 countries, it was found that workers in India were the mostly likely to report sexual harassment with a report rate of 26 percent. They were followed by workers in China with 18 percent reporting sexual harassment, Saudi Arabia 16 percent, Mexico 13 percent and South Africa 10 percent.
The poll also found that seven percent of employees have been intentionally physically assaulted out of anger by a co-worker or manager during their work day. India again topped the table with 25 percent of Indian workers saying they had been assaulted at work. Sweden was once again at the bottom with only one percent reporting such an incident. | | 
