The police in Assam Goalpara district have arrested the transgender, who allegedly had harassed a woman journalist.
The transgender had allegedly harassed a woman journalist on Monday at Dhupdhora in Lower Assam’s Goalpara district.
The incident happened while Trishna Das, a freelance journalist, was travelling in a bus from Guwahati to Goalpara.
The arrested accused has been identified as Asad Ali aka Rekha.
The accused, meanwhile, has been sent to Goalpara jail.
The police are on the lookout for two more transgender, who are reportedly on the run.
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“I was traveling from Guwahati to Goalpara in a private ultra-bus today. After reaching Dhupdhora at around 12:20, the bus halted for a few minutes when a maskless person (what appeared to be a transgender) boarded the bus. The person started demanding money from people onboard.
As I witnessed the person moving from one seat to other, the person by force snatched a hundred rupees from a traveler in the bus. Suddenly the person came extremely close to me and demanded money from me as well, I shook my head to say ‘No’,” Trishna Das had said.
She said when she refused to pay money, the man hurled verbal abuse at her besides touching her inappropriately.
“Then the person started misbehaving and touching me inappropriately several times trying to convince me to give some money. The person wasn’t wearing a mask. So, I asked the person to stay away when suddenly, the person started hurling slangs, verbally abusing me in public,” she added.
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Das alleged the accused along with two other transgender persons threatened her with dire consequences when she had gone to Dhupdhora police station to lodge a complaint.
“The person and his acquaintances became aggressive and they got naked in the police station itself shouting and screaming at me trying to scare me so that I don’t register the FIR. They even attacked me and gave me death threats. One of them got extremely close and tried to snatch my phone as I was video recording the incident for proof. People at the PS asked me to stay inside as the situation got worse,” the journalist had said.