Tanzanian woman alleges mob assaulted in Bengaluru

The Soladevanahalli police on Wednesday registered a case of molestation following a complaint by a 21-year-old Tanzanian woman, studying in a City college, that she was thrashed and molested during the violence that broke out after a road mishap on Hesarghatta Main Road on Sunday night.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) T R Suresh said the the woman was subjected to a medical test. A case of molestation, rioting, assault and arson has been registered. The victim’s case has been incorporated with the case filed by Mohammed Ahad, a Sudan national and a student of Acharya College, who was beaten up after he rammed his car into a 35-year-old pedestrian Shabana Taz, killing her on the spot.

The Tanzanian, who was no way connected with the accident, was attacked by the mob suspecting that she was Ahad’s friend. The mob set Ahad’s car ablaze as well as the one in which the Tanzanian student was travelling. The victim told a news channel: “I came in a car, along with four of my friends, and noticed a torched car. Soon, a group of



people chased one of my friends and thrashed him. They also started assaulting me. I ran across the road, but the mob chased me, manhandled me and also pulled off my T-shirt. I, along with my friends, boarded a bus and asked the driver to go, but he refused. The people inside the bus also thrashed us and threw us outside. The mob, which was waiting outside the bus, started thrashing us again. After a while the mob left us alone.”

The woman further complained: “Right now, we are scared of people around us. It is difficult for us (Africans) as petrol bunks refuse to give us the fuel and even the autorickshaw drivers refuse to ferry us. We are scared to even go out. We do not know what to do.”  

Kaweesi said that the victim and her friends were traumatised after the incident. They were no way related to the accident. They came 30 minutes after the accident. The police, instead of providing them security and help them in recovering their valuables like passport and cash, made them run from police station to hospital.