Balaji Vijayaraghavan, a stand-up comedian and a software employee, has been running from pillar to post to get a FIR registered against a doctor and an oncologist, for harassing his 62-year old widowed aunt. His aunt’s complaint with the Adambakkam police station has been lying unattended for more than a week.
“I still haven’t got the complaint registered. The police have not given even the CSR for the complaint. I don’t know why. The police have asked me to come to the station now. I am hopeful that at least now they will register a FIR,” Vijayaraghavan told THE WEEK as he was heading to the police station to know the status of the complaint.
Vijayaraghavan’s aunt, who does not want to be identified, lives in an apartment in Nanganallur, a Chennai city suburb. She has accused ABVP (students' wing of the BJP) national president Dr Subbiah Shanmugam of harassing her by urinating and throwing used surgical masks and muck outside her house. Shanmugam is also a professor and head of the department of surgical oncology at Kilpauk Medical College and Government Hospital in Chennai.
The incident reportedly followed after an argument over payment for a parking lot in the apartment premises. According to Vijayaraghavan, who lives in the neighbourhood, his aunt lost her husband last year and she was living alone in the apartment. The woman demanded payment from Shanmugam for using her parking lot, which belonged to her. In her complaint, the woman said Shanmugam had approached her for using one of her two parking slots for parking his car. When the woman asked for a nominal charge as rent for using the space, a tussle broke out. After this, every day, the complaint says that she was verbally abused by him and he kept harassing her, including asking her if she wants chicken. He did this deliberately knowing that she was a vegetarian. And then, he went on to throw muck, garbage and used surgical masks at her doorstep.
When she informed Vijayaraghavan about this, he fixed a CCTV at her doorstep to check if he continued to do this. The CCTV footage clearly showed Shanmugam urinating in front of her house and on the entrance door. Following this Vijayaraghavan’s aunt registered a complaint with her apartment society, but all in vain, as he was a highly influential doctor and also being associated with the students wing of a ruling party. So the woman approached the Adambakkam police station on July 11, for which even a CSR was not issued by the police. Fed up with the police inaction, Vijayaraghavan took to social media to narrate his aunt’s troubles to get justice.
Incidentally, a statement issued in this regard by ABVP National General Secretary Nidhi Tripathi dismissed the complaint calling it “libelous”. Agreeing to the fact that there was an issue of parking slots at the residential society, it said the CCTV footage was “tampered with and used with malafide intentions.”
“NSUI is running a malicious, derogatory propaganda against Dr Subbiah Shanmugam with a fake video purported as harassment. ABVP demands investigation be done on the claims by NSUI which are libelous in nature and have invited legal action against the national office bearers of INC, IYC and the NSUI,” reads Nidhi’s statement. Shanmugam has also rubbished the allegations.
However, Vijayaraghavan says that his aunt has been subjected to psychological harassment by Shanmugam and has been running to get justice for his widowed aunt. Though the complaint was filed on July 11 by Vijayaraghavan's aunt, only a receipt for the complaint was issued on July 24 and there was no further investigation.
Incidentally, at a time when religion and casteism are scripting a comeback in Tamil Nadu, strong public opinion has been developing if the Tamil Nadu police go soft on complaints against rightwing forces.
