Narsinghpur (Madhya Pradesh): Two young men were detained in Madhya Pradesh's Narsinghpur for verbally harassing and eve-teasing women at a bus stand by shouting slang phrases, including “maal-maal.”
A video of the incident surfaced on social media, where both the accused can be seen entering the bus stand premises on their motorbike in search of women to eve-tease.
When initially they could not spot any women to harass, one of them expressed disappointment, saying, "Yaha to koi maal hi nahi hai" (There are no girls here)
The harassment escalated when they saw a school-going girl; one of the men reportedly said, “Humko bhi pata lo” (Try dating me). Additionally, things got worse when two minors in their school uniform were passing by the accused; the youth driving the motorbike allegedly catcalled one of the girls, asking, “Ye maal kaisi hai,” referring to her.
Makeover with braided hair
In response to the viral video, Madhya Pradesh police detained both the accused and released an apology video of them after a satirical makeover. Both the accused were apologising with a braided hairstyle.
The apology video, which garnered 237,000+ views on X (formerly Twitter), depicts the humorous transformation of the accused and raises cautionary awareness about harassment in public spaces.
Netizens react
While many praised the police's initiative to highlight the circumstances of misconduct in public spaces, many termed the approach creative, and few hailed the satirical makeover, including the braided hairstyle. On the other hand, advocates of civil liberties condemned the police's approach by questioning the fairness of public shaming.
The public shaming tactic used by the cops here aims to create cautionary examples by making social media a tool of law enforcement.
