SFI Delhi State Committee Member Alleges Attack by NSUI-KSU ‘Hooligans’, FIR Filed

New Delhi: A statement released by the Students Federation of India (SFI) Delhi says that on April 16, 2023, a group of men gathered outside a flat in Old Gupta Colony near GTB Nagar and created a ruckus. SFI Delhi State Committee Member Mehina Fathima, the resident of the flat,  was allegedly harassed by the men.

The statement further says that this group of men started shouting and creating noises outside the flat as a response to which Mehina Fathima stepped outside to talk to them about their behaviour. The statement reads, “These men physically came up very close to Mehina to intimidate her. Then they proceeded to abuse, grope, and manhandle her, with one spitting on her.” 

The statement also reveals some of the names of the alleged attackers of the National Students Union of India- Kerala Students Union (NSUI-KSU). They include Mohammed Rifnas, Danish, Abdul Fatah, Munna Shabaz, and Ashish.

Following this incident, Mehina Fathima put two public posts on Instagram calling out this attack that had taken place on her. In the first post, she mentioned the details of this attack. In a second public Instagram post, a video and a recorded phone call. In the video, it is visible that a large group of men were gathered outside the said flat. In the phone call recording, an alleged member of NSUI from Zakir Hussain College is threatening one of Mehina’s acquaintances to take down the post. 

While speaking to Fathima on the matter, she said, “The campus spaces are becoming more and more unsafe by each day. What happened to me is just one of the incidents that happen to women living in and near the North Campus every day if the men here are not afraid of scaling walls and jumping inside women's colleges to harass and assault them. Why would they fear coming outside our houses and doing the same? I refuse to be pulled down by this incident. I, along with SFI Delhi, will be moving legally against these attackers. We have filed a police complaint, and an FIR has been registered.”

SFI Delhi had called for a protest on April 17, 2023, condemning this attack. In the protest, many senior leaders of SFI Delhi University delivered speeches and said they wouldn’t rest until justice was delivered. State Committee Members Anil Sethumadhavan and Aseed Karim, in their speeches, said, “We will not forget, and we will not forgive.”

At the protest about this issue, Varkey Parakkal, a student of Ambedkar University Delhi, said, “The attackers belong to a party of the landlords; they carry feudal and patriarchal values within them. For them, a woman’s body is a battleground that has to be won and controlled. Their behaviour towards women will never change as long as they carry these values. 

Aishe Ghosh, Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) President and SFI Delhi President, said, “Women's safety is taken for granted these days. It is evident in the rising number of everyday cases and complaints of harassment that women face in their jobs, in educational institutes, in any sort of public places, inside their houses, and now even in the streets that they daily walk and use. No space for women in this misogynist and patriarchial society. We demand from the police and other authorities that there shouldn’t be any delay in justice, and Delhi Police should take immediate action against all the culprits involved.”