On Friday night, a resident of Jayanagar tweeted about a stalker on a well-lit road.
Creeped out, she decided to file a complaint at the nearest police station the next morning. The police's actions upset her a lot more than the incident itself, she said.
"I was walking down a well-lit road next to Madhavan Park around 9.45 or 9.50 pm to grab a bar of ice cream when I noticed there was a stalker on a bike. So, I decided to file a police complaint the next morning and request them to patrol at night so women feel safer," she said.
She alleged that the police officers at the station were unhelpful and made her wait over an hour to file a complaint after multiple officers asked her to repeat the incident.
"More than the incident itself, registering a complaint was a hassle because they didn't understand the term stalking and were being very casual while questioning me," she said.
She said that the police insisted she show the exact spot where the man was standing and went with her in the police van.
When she was asked to repeat what had happened to two other officers, she told them that she had already explained it to the others. This, she said, angered one of the officers who began yelling at her.
She alleged that uniformed policemen then followed her home and knocked on her door before going to her landlord's place to inquire about her.
"Police seem to have no standard operating procedure to help women file a complaint in this city," she said.
Nothing on CCTV footage
Police alleged that she must have assumed she was being stalked and "made up" the claim out of fear because the CCTV footage showed nobody following her.
"We have regular patrolling at night in that area already. No such complaints have come up in the past. She must have gotten scared at night and complained," a police officer said, adding that they will have the footage verified once again.
They have filed a non-cognisable report (NCR) following her complaint.
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