Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
The story is of Rhea Sharma, a 18-year old girl who once faced harassment on her way to Lonavla with a friend Manish. Both have them haven’t informed their parents that they are going to a party. And Manish even told his parents that he is going for IIT preparation study. Rhea shares about the uneventful experience when she felt goosebumps and also how she fought back to be a true hero.
Theme of the Episode: Fight against Sexual Harassment; Have strength, courage, and Knowledge to fight abuse and be victorious; Keep your parents informed about your visits and travel.
The story starts with Rhea and Manish going to Lonvala in his car very late at night around 2:00 am and soon she finds lot of beer bottles and asks Manish why so much.. He speaks that it needs to be carried because of the party and speaks that now he is empty (without money). She informs him that she is carrying her Dad’s ATM card for emergency needs, so they don’t need to worry about money.
Sooner, they are approached by two policeman on a bike and they need to stop the car. They see Rhea, and Manish speaks that he haven’t broke any rule but they insists for license, PUC (pollution certificate). He speaks that the car belongs to his father. The policeman then asks for the insurance, and looks at Rhea’s legs and also speaks that PUC is expiring in one week and taunts him. Manish shows nervousness and they then asks where are they going, and asks about Rhea, Is she a friend ? And asks him why is he nervous ? The policeman then finds beer bottles at the back of the car, and Manish speaks it belongs to his friend, and the policeman speaks that under-25 yrs alcohol is not allowed to be possessed and threatens to call his father. They even tell Rhea to come outside.
Manish apologizes to the policeman. They informs that they need to come to station for some blood report. The policemen threaten to inform their parents if they don’t listen. She speaks that she doesn’t have phone and the policeman taunts that there is an imported car, beers, and no phone, how come that’s possible ?. They then wants Rhea to open her jacket and wants her to take a turn and looks at her body with bad intentions thereby abusing her. They taunts more, and gets the phone from her. They want to take her breath test to abuse further, and Manish just feels helpless and doesn’t do anything. The policeman wants her to come close as she is not coming close for the breath test. Sooner then, Manish wants them to resolve this matter without calling his father. He is willing to pay 1200 INR as the fine but they are not agreeing. They wants 5,000 INR, and then takes ATM card from Rhea. The policeman send his colleague Pandey with Manish to take the money from the ATM.
Rhea speaks that the policeman knew that they were scared of their parents so took the advantage and they were like puppets and couldn’t speak anything. The policeman who was at the car ties Rhea’s hand with a handcuff to the car’s handle so she cannot move her hand and body. He asks her about the boy, and she responds friend. He then wants her to tell him as her boyfriend. And she then responds boyfriend with nervousness. He then speaks that Rhea and manish will have a big party and enjoyment right? He asks whether she has a condom in her pocket and taunts whether she has taken a tablet. Furthermore, abusing her by touching her body on the pretext of checking for some tablets. She begs him to leave her, and says that he can take more money from his car so as to leave her alone. After this, he goes to pee.
On the other end, Manish at the ATM centre informs Pandey that he doesn’t know the pin of the card. And Pandey informs the policeman who has held Rhea hostage. He asks Rhea about the card’s pin, who informs him that he can look at the pin on her phone. The policeman tries to unlock the phone with the password 7456, and speaks that it is the wrong password and scolds her and repeats with new password 7654. After this, he informs his colleague Pandey on phone that the ATM pin number is 7456. She takes the phone and informs Manish to withdraw 20,000 INR. The policeman with Rhea informs Pandey to do some deceit. Pandey after taking the orders runs from the ATM centre on his bike and deceiting Manish and leaving him alone there.
The policeman tries to come close to Rhea and continues to abuse her. Pandey comes to the car where Rhea is locked to the car, and cooks up a story that Manish has run away and speaks a big lie.. Rhea becomes worried and she speaks that the policeman now can call his parents and take the money. She begs him to leave her alone. But he is not listening and further wants to abuse her. He takes her photos on her mobile showing her crying and in a vulnerable state. They speak on getting nice photo and laughs on her situation.
Sooner, Manish comes back with the police, and it turns out that the policeman who harassed and abuse Rhea were actually fake ones and are thief who robbed people by showing themselves as policemen. Rhea speaks about how her father came to her rescue. She speaks about the mobile application (app) in her mobile phone where if you enter the wrong password then it will take a photo of the person holding it, and send it to 5 of her emergency contacts with that person’s photo. Furthermore, she also speaks about if somebody withdraws maximum amount from the ATM then an alert message is sent to her father with the area code, and because of these two intelligent actions, her father got understanding of her uneventful situation and informed the police.
The real policeman get hold of those fake policeman who are big thief and arrests them. Sooner, Rhea’s father comes there and she apologizes to his father on her mistake for not informing him about the party, and cries. He speaks that she is safe and that only matters to him, and he is very proud of her, and consoles her with a warm hug. Rhea speaks that everyone carry ATM cards, mobile phones but we don’t have full knowledge about them. She speaks on Section 160 of IPC (Indian penal code) where a girl cannot be interrogated by a male, male police cannot physically touch a female, and also female person cannot be arrested before sunrise or after sunset. And only a female can be interrogated at her home in front of female family members. She reiterates that the fake thief were acting too smart and are caught by her intelligent actions and regards herself to be a true hero.
Images credit: Official Facebook page of Heroes-the fightback files
Sneak Peek of today’s Episode:
[youtube id=http://youtu.be/13Ep1_dHuCU]
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