Thiruvananthapuram: Within a fortnight of an undergraduate student at the Women’s College here walking out of a programme and booing the speaker who kept up an anti-women tirade, a 20-year-old girl has physically taken on a group of sexual harrasers in the state capital.
Local media highlighted the spirited fight of Amritha Mohan who had to endure harassment by a group of men while travelling in a state government vehicle. Ironically, the girl, a final year BA Communication student at a college here, was returning after attending a programme related to the One Billion Rising event when the incident happened late in the evening on Thursday. Mohan had led the women’s motorcycle rally at the programme, riding a bike herself.
She was returning after the programme with her friend Ramona riding pillion when the group reportedly made offensive comments against them from their vehicle. Mohan and Ramona’s parents were following in two other vehicles. When the girls stopped on the way and their family members went to get some food, the men appeared again and started their verbal harassment. When Mohan’s father, who intervened, was attacked by the men, she got into the act and beat up two of them.
Unlike in the Women’s College incident where the girl got no support from her colleagues, bystanders on the street came to Mohan’s rescue and helped nab Manoj (30), the driver of the vehicle. Police took the man into custody and are on the lookout for the others.
Mohan, who has been trained in the local martial art form, Kalari, is a regular bike rider and has also acted in a movie in which she plays the a hockey team member who takes on a team of harrasers during a train journey.
