“Would Have Been Next Anjali…”: Women’s Panel Chief On Midnight Scare

New Delhi: 

Swati Maliwal, the chief of the Delhi Commission for Women, today shared what she called a horrific run-in with a drunk driver who dragged her after harassing her on the road at a prominent spot in Delhi. 

“If my team had not intervened, I would have been the next Anjali,” she told NDTV, referring to the young woman who died on New Year’s Day after being dragged 13 km by a car.

Swati Maliwal was allegedly harassed and dragged 15 metres near the AIIMS hospital in Delhi when she was out on the streets last night “for a reality check” on the safety of women in the capital.

The driver, 47-year-old Harish Chandra, has been arrested.

Ms Maliwal said she was out on an inspection on women’s safety in Delhi and was at the bus stop near AIIMS when the car drove up.

It was around 3.11 am. Harish Chandra pulled up “extremely drunk” and pestered her to join him, she told NDTV. Her team was waiting at a distance.

Ms Maliwal said when she refused, the man “kept pestering her”, then drove off “in anger”, took a U-turn and returned after 10 minutes. When he tried to force her to join him in the car, she reached in through the window to catch him, but he allegedly rolled up the window, trapping her arm.