Mumbai News: SHRC Takes Cognisance Of Journalist’s Complaint

The Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission has taken suo motu cognizance of an allegation made by senior journalist Amrapali Sharma that police authorities have failed to take a complaint she had filed against the residents of Malwani.

A division bench of Justice KK Tated and Sanjay Kumar has issued summons to the deputy commissioner of police, Zone XI, and senior inspector of Malvani police to hold a fact-finding inquiry into the matter and submit an affidavit before the commission.

The complaint is in connection with a video that the journalist posted on a social networking site, alleging that she is being targeted by minority community members in her area. Sharma said that she is being targeted because she is a Hindu and that she is allegedly facing existential threats from her neighbourhood people.

“These people are threatening and harassing the Hindus so as to either commit suicide or to sell off their businesses and houses and move out of the locality,” she said.

In papers attached to the complaint, she alleges that a mob allegedly also threw meat outside her doorstep. She alleged that the place where she stays as a single woman is “unsafe for women”. “I am secular, but a Hindu. I have to struggle for my existence. I am a victim who is on their target,” she said.

She said she had approached the police, they had given assurances but failed to act. She concluded her complaint video by saying that if anything happens to her, “this community living in the neighbourhood, who is targeting me, will be responsible”.