Varnika Kundu is a freelance DJ in Chandigarh, the city she has called home for over a decade. Last week two drunken men—one is the son of Haryana BJP’s president’s son Vikas Barnala—pursued her as she drove home after work, as she has done for long. She has said that the duo blocked her way, tried to forcibly break into her car. She narrates the ordeal and expresses determination to fight her case to Pragya Singh.
What have the last 72 hours been like?
Just exhausting—I spoke to the media about what happened for 16 hours on Saturday and Sunday and have still more waiting.
Your name is being used in the media. Do you object to that?
I had filed a complaint against the two men who chased me with the police. Thereafter I found out that one of them is the son of an influential BJP guy. That is when I decided to write my Facebook post. It was supposed to be for my friends, to inform Chandigarh people what had happened in this city. What happened next is that it went [viral].
On the night of the incident you seem to have averted a worse situation. How?
When it was happening, all my reactions were natural. I did what I could at the spur of the moment. It was not like I was thinking or able to think things through. That said, in my line of work I have to work late and sometimes return home alone. The entire climate in the country for the last few years, with respect to women, has been such that I always try to be alert. This is especially so since I started driving late at night.
Chandigarh does not seem like a safe place at all after what you faced?
This was not the first time that some guys have tried to follow me—literally every girl in Chandigarh has been followed. When it happened before, a couple of times, I had to call the police, when the men were very persistent. So that night too, I instinctively called the police as I drove.
The incident is unusual for the men tried to force their way into your car. Has this happened before to anyone you know?
No, never, never. If I was on an isolated road or in the middle of nowhere—like in that movie starring Anushka Sharma, which is based entirely on this concept—or if had not been in Chandigarh but in a village or a small town, I might have been worried about driving alone. Or if I had not been in Chandigarh, I might have been worried.
You mean in your city, like many other cities of India, women tend to feel safe in their centrally-locked cars as they drive home late at night? Safer, say, than in public transport, walking or on a two-wheeler?
Yes. I thought that I had the safety of my car. That night I realized, okay, these men are in an SUV and I am in a sedan. If they had struck at me forcefully with their SUV, their vehicle would hardly have suffered any damage whereas my car would just have stopped. I could have been stuck. Anything might have happened.
Was there any point during the incident when passersby could have helped you?
There was a time, right before the police caught them, which was at the last stop light where I had halted. There were five or six cars and two-wheelers and I was honking my horn loudly, continuously. Not that I expected anyone to help—that, I think, is too much to expect. Everybody was, I think, just looking at this bizarre situation unfold. Probably it was as bizarre to everybody around as it was to me—that someone was trying to force their way into my car at a red light stop.
That was when one of them tried to enter your vehicle—from the rear door?
He tried to open the rear door because that is the only door he could come close to. You see, he got out of the SUV and was walking towards my car and at that time I reversed and so he could only reach the rear door, not the front door.
One of the men you have named in your FIR is a BJP leader’s son. How has that complicated your case?
I don’t know if it has complicated the matter but I do know that in a really roundabout way it has helped. Maybe this case would not have got so much attention and support if he was not connected to a powerful man. On some level, everybody understands that if these guys were not from the background they are from, they probably would not have done what they did. There is the other side too—apparently, CCTV footage is unavailable for the incident. The cameras, police say, were not working. Maybe the guy’s background had to do with this… On the whole, though, I wish not to make this a political issue.
Does it worry you that social media posts are circulating with photos claiming to be of you with the accused? What action would you consider in this aspect of the case?
The picture that has circulated is of me with some other friends of mine. Anybody can see that it is not those guys. Right now these photos don’t seem to be worth even getting concerned with.
The photos are doing what is called character assassination, though.
It is an attempt at character assassination. These guys can attempt it, at best. The more they try to do it, the stronger I will get. If they think they can use my pictures, from my social media sites against me, they are wrong. If I had to get scared I would have been scared right the night the incident took place.
Do you feel it is just luck that determines which woman reaches home safe and who doesn’t? Does it matter that your father is a prominent bureaucrat?
To an extent—I think it was just luck that I was saved. It was also ‘luck’ that they picked me to chase. If it had been a different girl she might have chosen not to complain.
What has been the police’s attitude towards you?
Every time I have approached them, they have supported me. My personal opinion is that whether they file bailable or non-bailable cases does not change what the police have to do. In my dealings with the police, except for the matter of the missing CCTV footage, they have been fine.
Doesn’t it worry you that the two men from the SUV are on bail?
Not really. Their being out on bail doesn’t worry me. This isn’t over—it has just begun. Nobody in their right mind would repeat how these two men behaved. I do acknowledge that I may be speaking prematurely right now.
How do you expect life will change and if media attention fades?
I am going to make a conscious effort to go out and live as I always have. They wanted to scare me—if I get scared, they win.