Tori Chakma
Women Entrepreneur, Mizel-Hozal
Also working with SPaRC
I went to the Doctor’s chamber who was the owner of the shop. The moment I entered he was shouting at aggressively. When I reacted with the same tone, telling him that he doesn’t have the right to shout at me, he tried to attack me physically, almost slapping me. Luckily at that moment my boyfriend entered and stopped him by force. I was furious because of the disrespect he showed to me, a woman. I warned him that I would call the police and he just laughed at me and said, “ I know what you girls can do!! You can only call some of your boyfriends. Nothing more you can do than that!” I burst out of that room filled with anger. For a minute, I was totally blank. I also didn’t have phone number of any police stations. But suddenly it struck me! I called “Just Dial”, which was a service in India which you can call anytime for any information you need. I asked them for the number of a nearby police station. They immediately sent me the numbers via a text message. I called a nearby police station and described the incident and provided my location. Within 20 minutes one policeman had arrived to where I was and, after hearing from me he went to talk with the doctor. I could not speak Marathi but understood from their conversation that the doctor was trying to show his political affiliations and powers. This made the policeman angrier and he became more and more suspicious of the doctor. The policeman took us to the police station and instructed us to file a complaint. The doctor was later called to the police station by a senior office. He denied that he had done anything but the police officer could tell, he was lying. When the senior policeman ordered to file a case for assaulting a girl, the culprit began begging for lenience.
Finally, a complaint against him was lodged and he had to produce a written statement which stated that he would not repeat this kind of behavior against any girl in future.