As a purported video of the argument was shared on social media, the restaurant, Nukkadwala at JMD Megapolis in Sector 48, issued a statement. (Screengrab)An argument erupted at a mall in Gurgaon Tuesday morning after a woman allegedly confronted a young woman at a restaurant regarding the length of her dress and, according to her, asked some men seated at a table nearby to “rape” her and her friends. As a purported video of the argument was shared on social media, the restaurant, Nukkadwala at JMD Megapolis in Sector 48, issued a statement.
“On the morning of April 30, a group of girls walked into a Nukkadwala outlet in Gurgaon and were body shamed for the clothes they were wearing. The group of three girls went to the restaurant for having snacks where a lady passed some lewd comments… and an argument took place. To make things calmer, the restaurant manager apologised to the girls and requested that they sit away from the lady and then requested the lady to calm down and not create a scene,” the restaurant stated.
Nukkadwala CEO and co-founder Nitika Kapur said: “The young women who came in are regulars. And the lady was elderly and of a certain mindset. We don’t know what triggered her outburst. The manager did request her to calm down since they could not ask her to leave out of respect. Following the outburst, they allowed the group of women to take their food to the upper floor. The restaurant has also extended their support to the young women who had been shamed.”
In a post accompanying the video shared by one of the three women on Facebook, she alleged that she and her friends were “harassed” by the woman for “wearing a short dress”.
The video shows the woman’s outburst, and the three young women confronting her at a home furnishing store in the mall afterwards.
“The woman… addressed seven men at the restaurant to rape us because she felt we deserved it for wearing short clothes and bashing her unsolicited opinion. For speaking up against her primitive mindset. Our instinct was to turn away from the drama, but supported by our colleagues we took her on at a shopping centre, nearby. We gave her the chance to apologise, to no avail, of course.”
Speaking to The Indian Express on Wednesday, the woman who shot the video on her phone alleged: “The incident happened between 11 am-12 pm Tuesday. Six of us were at the restaurant and the woman was sitting behind us. She asked me to come sit next to her and I asked why. She then started talking about the length of my dress and how women like us get raped because of it. She told the men in the room to rape women like us”. The Gurgaon resident claimed that the restaurant staff did not intervene at that point.
She said, “We then followed her to a store nearby where the video was shot.”
The Gurgaon resident said that she and her friends are “mulling over whether or not legal action should be taken as the woman in the video has apologised”. She said that while the woman hadn’t reached out to the group, she has posted an apology on Facebook. The 9 minutes 45-second video also shows a woman standing up for the girls and asking the woman to apologise to them.
Gurgaon Police said that though they are aware of the video, nobody has approached them with a complaint so far.
