Activist booked in rare case of assault on French woman

Wellknown activist mental health advocate and frequent TED Talks speaker Divya Dureja has been accused of abducting drugging assaulting and sexually molesting a 26yearold French woman at a hotel in Pernem Goa The complainant alleged that Dureja told her that she was performing a ldquoshamanic ritualrdquo The accused is currently out on bail The investigating officer said the alleged samesex sexual assault involving two women was a rare case in IndiaPernem cops inspect the hotel room at Sea View resort Ashvem where the woman was allegedly held against her willThe survivor in a statement to the media said she had come to Goa on January 17 on a Business Visa and had been staying in Arambol Divya connected with the survivor after following her on Instagram on February 22 Later the woman introduced Divya to her friend in Goa The trio then decided to meet on February 23 afternoonThe woman went to Sea View Resort at Ashvem to meet Divya and they were later supposed to meet the friend At the resort Divya took her to her room saying she wanted to fix her hair She said Divya drugged her under the pretext of giving her a medicine for back pain The activist locked her up in the room for nearly five hours during which ldquoshe molested me and inserted her hand in my vagina insinuating she was planting a treerdquo the survivor said She added that Divya also bit herReleased on bailThe woman had filed a complaint at Pernem police station soon after escaping Police booked Divya under Sections 342 punishment for wrongful confinement and 354 assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty of the IPC and arrested her on February 24 morning She was later released on bailSub Inspector Reecha Maheshwar Bhonsle the investigating officer in the case told midday she was thinking about the sections that could be invoked as the case was a rare one ldquoBasically lsquoa manrsquo needs to be involved in such a case The section IPC 354 that we have used says lsquoanyonersquo instead of lsquoa manrsquo It says lsquoanyonersquo or lsquowhoeverrsquordquo she saidCops at the hotel where the alleged incident happenedExplaining the legal ambiguity that in such cases Senior Advocate Mihir Desai said ldquoSection 375 of the IPC defines rape but it clearly defines rape in the form of a man committing rape on a woman Section 377 on the other hand talks about carnal intercourse but not in terms of a man or a woman it is not specific to a man doing something to a womanrdquo He added when it comes to sexual assault andor rape between a two women Section 377 is the one that ldquocan be interpretedrdquo since it doesnrsquot specifically make any reference to a man or a womanldquoPrime facie something has happened I am saying this based on medical reports But when we asked the manager and the hotel staff they said they didnrsquot hear any noise or screams from the roomrdquo Bhonsle addedBhonsle said a medical examination of both the women has been conducted and we are in the process of sending the reports to the forensics lab for further clarification and authentication ldquoThe complainantrsquos medical report shows that she has injuries on her back The doctors say these are fresh injurieshellipand seem to be from the same incident The rest like blood samples etc are being sent to the laboratory nowrdquo However Divyarsquos medical reports ldquohave nothing of this sortrdquolsquoFound leaves in roomrsquoDivya denied the allegations and was not ldquomentally stablerdquo to say much Bhonsle said ldquoBut whatever the victim said about leaves etc when we went to the room we found those things I asked her Divya what happened in the hotel room but all she said was lsquowe were chitchattingrsquordquo she addedThe survivorrsquos friend also a French national who doesnrsquot want to be named said it was important to understand that the woman ldquodid not go out on a date with Divya and that they wanted to meet because they were all ldquofeminists and share similar political viewsrdquoIn her statement the survivor had said that in the room Divyarsquos ldquovoice was kept changing it felt like there were five or six different people in the room She was screaming things like lsquothis is just my human body kill me your body is just a human body During the entire lsquoprocessrsquo she called herself lsquoThe Lord Manrsquo and referred to me as lsquoThe Queen of the Junglersquo apologising for her past mistakes that led us in our past lives to be separatedrdquo After hours at the end Divya ldquofinally screamed lsquothe spirit allows me to let you gorsquo and let me leave the room in shock and devastationrdquolsquoCouldnrsquot recognise momrsquoDivyarsquos sister Jayati Dureja told midday the former had gone to Goa a little over a week agoOn Tuesday Jayati couldnrsquot get in touch with Divya so she called up the hotel and the manager informed us that she had been taken away by the police Jayati said ldquoWhen a family friend went to meet her at the police station Divya had a swollen ankle and looked like she was in shockrdquoDivyarsquos mother reached Goa from Delhi on Thursday and went to meet her But Divya didnrsquot recognise her Jayati said ldquoShe wasnrsquot letting anyone near her She kept asking lsquocan I trust yoursquo A psychiatrist said this is an acute PTSD sort of thing or she might have been drugged Usually drug tests are to be done within 24 hours but that window has closedrdquoDivya is currently admitted at a psychiatric facility in Delhi ldquoThe psychiatrist says she will not be able to recall anything for the next two to three weeksrdquo said Jayati Divyarsquos legal counsel Goabased advocate Caroline Collaso said ldquoThere is no defence right now because Divya is unwell The drug angle etc are all allegations made by the complainant Ultimately she has to prove her allegationsrdquoFeb 23Day the alleged incident took place in the hotel24Day in February Divya Dureja was arrested in Pernem