Woman parking attendant, her colleague ‘assaulted’ in presence of policemen

The video grab of the parking attendants being assaulted. Express

A woman parking attendant and her fellow male attendant were allegedly assaulted in the presence of three policemen by unidentified men when they asked them to pay parking fee in the parking lot of Sector 22-B in Chandigarh on Wednesday. One of the video clips, which surfaced on Sunday, shows how two parking attendants were trying to save themselves while policemen stood there as spectators.

Taking strict note of the case, Senior Superintendent of Police Jagdale Nilambari Vijay has directed DSP Ram Gopal to take immediate action in the case. “I have told DSP (Central) to initiate action immediately. We will support it in every possible legal way,” she told Chandigarh Newsline.

The police began investigations into the matter on Sunday and DSP Ram Gopal contacted the victim. The SSP asked a woman Sub-Inspector to visit the victim’s house. A Sub-Inspector from the local police station also went to Sector 22-B market to identify the accused in the video.

Sandeep Bhora, project coordinator of Arya Toll Infra Limited, the company managing the parking lots in the city, said that the policemen forced their attendants to enter into a compromise because those who thrashed his staff were powerful men. Bhora added that they would now get an FIR lodged in the case. “The local police post incharge said that they would initiate action against these parking attendants. The woman attendant is so scared that she says that she would leave the job now as the work environment is not safe,” said Bhora.

Bhora added that the entire incident is recorded in the CCTV camera of one of the shops there but the shopkeeper wasn’t giving them the footage.

Talking to Chandigarh Newsline, Gayatri, the woman attendant said, “The men there misbehaved with me and pushed me repeatedly. They even threatened me of dire consequences. When I narrated this to the policemen at the police post, they said, ‘Court ke chakkar khaane padenge, rafa dafa karo…The policemen present on the spot were witness to all this but they wanted us to keep mum.”

Inderjeet, the other parking attendant involved in the incident, said that the man who was asked to pay parking fee for his bike was a regular visitor who never paid the fee saying that he was working at the office of one of office-bearers of the market association. “He then called his employer and other people. Some of them who hit us were the market association people,” he said.

The local police post incharge of Sector 22, Kuldeep Singh, said that he wasn’t aware of what happened even as the victim said that the policemen at the police post asked her not to pursue the case. Bhora said that they started the pilot project of women parking attendants in Chandigarh thinking that it was the safest city, but the situation is turning out to be otherwise.