A 25-year-old woman, working at a unisex salon in Greater Noida, was thrashed in public by her employer and his three friends, over the salary issue. According to the police, the main accused in the case has been arrested on Monday evening, two days after the incident on Saturday.
A video of the incident purportedly showing the men beating the woman with sticks, pulling her by her hair and manhandling her publicly also surfaced on social media.
Some passers-by were seen filming the attack, but no one came to the rescue of the woman.
According to the woman, the accused went to file a complaint against her at the Knowledge Park police station after the incident on Saturday.
“However, when I reached the police station on Saturday, they took my complaint but did not act on it seriously,” she alleged. A day later, the police registered an FIR against the accused on Sunday. The woman on Monday visited the office of the senior superintendent of police (SSP ) in Surajpur to draw the attention of senior officials, after which the salon owner, Waseem, was arrested.
The woman, who lives in Bhangel, had joined the Venus Unisex Salon in Knowledge Park II as a makeup artist on March 16 on a monthly salary of Rs 17,000, according to her police complaint. She alleged that Waseem demanded physical relations when she asked for her salary.
“I have been working at the salon for some time now for Rs. 17,000 a month as a make-up artist. When recently I asked the employer for my monthly remuneration, first he kept dilly-dallying and after some days he started seeking sexual favours. He and his friends pressured me into heeding to their demands for sexual favours,” she has said in her complaint.
“On Saturday evening, they called me to collect my salary. When I reached the salon, Waseem’s friend Shera tried to rape me. I put up resistance and came out of the salon. Then all the four started thrashing me,” she said. The victim alleged that her employer had not been releasing her salary on one pretext or the other for the last 10 days.
Shocking incident from Greater Noida area where a girl, in a viral video, is seen being beaten up and assaulted by a group of men with stick. @Uppolice Incident is from Knowledge Park Police Station area. pic.twitter.com/1s9tJFsCVs
— Bhartendu Sharma (@Bhartendulkar) May 13, 2019
The woman also claimed that she felt threatened and needed security, according to her complaint that was made prior to the attack
Vineet Jaiswal, senior police official, Greater Noida, said police has taken cognisance of the video.
“The issue was between the woman and her employer at the salon over her remuneration and it worsened to the extent that they got into fighting. Vineet Jaiswal, superintendent of police (rural) said that police received the alleged video of the beating incident. “On Sunday, police registered a case against the accused under sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of IPC. The four accused had fled away after the incident. The police arrested the main accused, Waseem, on Monday,” Jaiswal said, adding further probe was underway.
Some social media users condemned the “apathy” of the onlookers for not coming to the rescue of the woman but making a video of the assault.
