Recently, two women were allegedly abducted from Gurgaon’s
MG Road in two isolated incidents and gang-raped in moving cars. These are not the first cases of molestation, abduction, and rape to have originated from the Mall Mile. Back in 2013, the area, lined with over two dozen pubs and several wine shops, was known to be ‘dangerous’ for women after dark. In five years, not much has changed. The stretch of MG Road – starting from the Metro station to the end of the malls over a kilometre ahead – is hardly frequented by women after 9pm. As incidents of molestation and assault increased in the area, a lot of regular partygoers started avoiding Gurgaon’s Mall Mile. Rapper
Raftaar told us during a visit to the city last year, “The MG Road area is not the fancy party hub as it used to be once. Jab yeh safe ya achha area nahin raha, toh maine bhi aana band kar diya.”
The lonely stretch outside
Sahara Mall on MG Road is hardly frequented by women after 9pm
Even street food vendors in the service lane outside the malls say they shut their shops after 10pm as ‘uss waqt mahaul kharab ho jata hai’. Mahesh, who sells chaat outside Sahara Mall, tells us, “Even though the malls are open till 1am, hum log yahan se 10 baje ke baad hat jaate hain. Mahaul theek nahin rehta. Log daaru pee kar jhagda karte hain. Humein apna nuksaan nahin karana.”
And this ‘mahaul’ has persisted at the Mall Mile for years now. Ask anyone why nothing has changed and you will get a variety of answers, based on who you pose the question to. Some say it is
police inaction, while others blame the presence of multiple liquor shops that invite ‘criminal elements’, and some attribute it to the ever-persistent problem of prostitutes operating from the area after dark. After every major incident – a shooting, an abduction, a rape – promises have been made to increase security and temporary measures have been taken, but residents and those who work in the malls say there has never been a permanent solution.
Anti-drunk-driving campaigns hardly make an impact
Most residents have one or several stories of their unsavoury encounters with drunken elements. Recounting an incident from last year, Amitesh, a resident of MG Road, tells us, “Every second day there is a drunken brawl outside either a liquor shop or a pub. Last year, I had gone to Sahara Mall and got late in leaving. It was around 9pm and there were drunk guys sitting in cars, openly leering and taunting girls there. I’m glad my wife wasn’t with me, else I would have probably ended up fighting them.” Rapper
Fazilpuria made news in June last year when he was stopped and challaned by Gurgaon Police for drunk driving at MG Road. Gurgaon Police say they regularly conduct such drives to check drunken driving and hooliganism, and while there is no set time and pattern of these drives, they happen almost weekly. However, local residents say the drives end up just being a mere formality. Amit Shah, who stayed on MG Road till last month, tells us, “Police conduct drives here only during festivals or when they have their own traffic safety month or week. Baaki time kya drunk log nahin hote yahan? Sab formality ki baat hai. These guys stay quiet for three-four days and then the
hooliganism resumes.”
Hooliganism, drunken brawls have made the Mall Mile an unsafe area for women after dark, say Gurgaon residents
Empty promise after every brawl: ‘We will increase the security in the area’
Bar brawls and fights are all too common and quite often, fights can even escalate, turning rather ugly. The Mall Mile has seen more than its fair share of armed fights. Residents say that whenever a ‘major’ incident takes place, security is increased for some time. “In October last year, there were shots fired at a pub in a mall, after which, for about a fortnight, the security and drunken driving checks were increased. But then, as the incident faded from memory, the security also went lax,” says Rajat, who lives on MG Road, referring to an October 2017 incident where two employees of a pub were injured after a shootout in Grand Mall.
Even the staff in the pubs and shops in the mall say they feel unsafe because of the fights. A bouncer at a pub in one of the malls in the area tells us, “Even bouncers aren’t safe here. Log group mein aate hain aur daaru peete hain, phir paise nahin dete. Hum object karte hain toh maar-peet karte hain.” In July last year, three men assaulted a bouncer outside Power Play sports bar in JMD Mall and snatched Rs. 31,000 from him. Bouncers and bartenders say that after that incident, some of the malls had promised to beef up security, but nothing came of it. “Vaade kiye thay ki zyada guards honge aur security tight hogi but sab waisa hi hai,” says a bartender, who did not wish to be named.
Women say that at times, even mall security refuses to pay heed to their complaints, fearing the ‘gunda crowd’. A city resident, who did not wish to be named, says, “Last year, there was an incident where a man inappropriately touched me while my husband and I were shopping at Sahara Mall. We complained to the mall guards, but they said jaane do madam, gunde type log hain. The guards also don’t want to engage with this crowd.”
One of the several liquor shops on the Mall Mile
Most ‘sar-phire’ refuse to listen to us, say cops
While residents argue that police do not do much to stop the crime at MG Road, Gurgaon Police say that they are doing all they can in the area. “There are ample police personnel stationed at areas with pubs and restaurants like MG Road and Cyber Hub. On MG Road, we regularly conduct checks and anti-drinking drives too,” says Ravinder Kumar, Gurgaon Police spokesperson. Two patrol vans of Gurgaon Police are on duty in the area till almost the break of dawn every night – one stationed near the police booth outside MGF Metropolitan Mall and the other near Sahara Mall. However, residents say that police presence is no deterrence to the hooligans or the prostitutes in the area. Anita Yadav, a Sector 56 resident, says, “There is plenty of police in the area at night. They often conduct anti-drunken-driving campaigns also. But still the miscreants stay there. The crowd is still bad there. I party regularly but I have never gone there even once.”
However, beat cops do say they are bound by certain restrictions. A cop stationed outside Sahara Mall narrates an incident that took place last month. “After midnight, I spotted a guy sleeping in a car parked on the roadside. When I knocked on his window and asked him to move, he told me I had no authority to tell him that. Maine kaha phir koi tumhe loot kar chala jayega. Toh bola ki sir, main toh yahin rahunga. Agar kuch hota hai toh I will complain to you. We deal with these sar-phire people every day and not every time can we use force because most just refuse to listen.”
A police van stationed outside an MG Road mall
‘Any girl out at night is harassed as everyone assumes she is a prostitute’
Most people who used to frequent the area several years ago, say the real decline of the Mall Mile began when it became the de facto red light district within Gurgaon. Rati*, a Delhi resident, recounts an incident when she was visiting a friend at MG Road two years ago, “I came out of the Metro station at around 9.30pm and was going over to my friend’s place. It was my first time in the area and I made the mistake of walking past the malls instead of taking an auto like my friend had suggested. They were the most harrowing 15 minutes of my life as at least half a dozen men approached me thinking I was a hooker. I literally ran the last stretch while being on the phone with my friend. No wonder people do not like going to this area.”
Gurgaon Police say they take the problem seriously and conduct regular drives to check the issue. “We conduct regular drives to check
prostitution on MG Road. The problem has been contained to a large extent. However, it has not been eradicated,” Police Commissioner Sandeep Khirwar had said after an abduction last year. However, residents say that such drives are conducted mostly as a response to an incident and even then, the effect of it is only short-lived. In fact, the police officials on the ground say that apart from drives, they limit their job to just containing the ‘illegal activities’ rather than stopping them. “Nobody from a decent household will come to this spot late at night. This area isn’t good and though we try to manage it as much as we can, it is beyond our control too. There is ample police presence here but we try mostly to contain the situation here. The girls do not engage in exchange of money out on the street. They just go with people, either in an auto or in a car. Even if we try to stop them, they threaten to file a complaint of harassment against us. Yeh jo mahilaon ki suraksha ke kanoon hain, inko misuse karne ki dhamki deti hain. Hum service road barricade kar dete hain jisse woh sab ek area mein gather ho jaata hai,” says a beat cop, who is stationed at MG Road on night patrol duty.
(*Name changed on request)
