According to sources reaching to North East Support Centre & Helpline, the incident happened when Mr. and Mrs. Shimray who live in Dwarka went to visit their cousin living in Safdarjung Enclave in south Delhi. A group of drunken people abused the couple in a car parking lot and passed racial and lewd remarks.
Later when checked the car parked in front of their cousin's resident, the tire was deflated. Shimray and his cousin were beaten up by the localites when they protested. Phone, money and even shirts were snatched away by the culprits.
The story does not end here. The police did not respond even though the matter was reported to the police helpline five times. Finally at around 2 a.m. a police van arrived and refused to arrest the culprits but rather abused the couple and Mrs. Shimray.
Till Sunday evening even after giving the written complaint to the police officer on duty refused to register the complaint. Only after the pressure mounted on the police officers on duty from student bodies and human rights activists, the complaint was lodged after 20 hours after the incident.
This is not the first time that the North East Support Centre & Helpline has experienced the failure of Delhi and NCR police in handling the case filed by north east communities. The north east communities have been ill-treated by localites and even more by the police.
The failure of the Delhi police to insure the safety to north east communities in Delhi and NCR is great concern. Boys, girls who migrated to Delhi for study and carrier are in great fear of racial attack abuse. The fear is the more when the police officers fail to perform their duty to protect the north east communities.
Unless police machinery in Delhi and NCR ensure the safety of north easterners living in Delhi and NCR and provide the law of the land equally and punish the culprits, the north east communities will continue to suffer, abuse and attack.
North East Support Centre & Helpline (www.nehelpline.net) is combined initiative of various human rights activists, social workers, students, journalists and lawyers seeking to prevent harassment and abuses meted out to women, North East People and tribal communities of different states.