Days after a man in Greater Noida beat up a Chinese woman living in a condominium there for allegedly fostering a stray dog which bit his canine, amid an already strained Indo-Chinese relationship, the victim has written an open letter where she described her ordeal.
"I am suffering severe pain in my body due to such inhuman beating and madness," is how victim Zou Hui, who resides in ATS Green Paradiso, described her plight. She has also attached photos of her injuries which suggest the sheer brutality with which she was assaulted. "If anything unnatural happens to us in the future, the accused man Mr. Amarpal Singh should be responsible for it," she said.
But how did it all start in the first place? Claiming that the police "ignored the real incident", Zou says she was "compelled" to write the open letter.
According to her, a stray dog that was following her suddenly attacked another resident's dog. Following this, "suddenly, the above mentioned Indian man thrashed me from behind at my back with a heavy thick stick more than 10 times". She added that her hands and hips were injured as a result of the assault. "I was shocked and wasn't aware why he was cruelly beating me," she said. Zou claims that society security guard Avneet Bhatti was witness to the alleged assault.
The incident occurred in Greater Noida on a day when China said that it will repatriate its citizens from India as the Covid-19 cases are spiraling. The relationship between the neighboring countries have become even more strained with rising skirmishes over the border.
However, Zou acknowledged that it was other Indian residents who came to her rescue and helped her call the police. She rubbished any suggestion of altercation, between the two.
While the Chinese national accepts she fed the dog, she claims: "It is not the dog issue. Media and the society have falsely reported (it) as an issue pertaining to dogs which is contrary to fact."
She claims while the accused Amarpal Singh (though police says his name is Amar Pratap Singh) too went to the police station and investigating officer Rekha Chaudhury "assured" her of "justice", to her horror, she discovered that the man she held responsible for the assault was mentioned as "unknown" in the FIR. She quotes an unnamed police personnel who told her Singh was arrested and presented in front of a magistrate. However, many residents of ATS Paradiso saw him come back to the society by 7.30 pm the same evening, according to Zou.
While she says that the police personnel dealing with her case were "very responsive", she urged for a "quick and just investigation", adding that the police must get hold of the CCTV footage of the incident which she says, substantiates her claims.
IANS was the first to report about this incident. Greater Noida Commissioner of Police Rajesh Kumar Singh had told IANS then that the man named Amar Pratap Singh of ATS Paradiso misbehaved with the woman after his dog was bitten by another dog who she used to feed every day.
The incident happened early in the day when the accused took his dog out for a walk. "After his dog was bitten, in a fit of rage, he misbehaved with the Chinese woman."
The Resident Welfare Association of the society, which Zou claims helped her, refused to comment on the issue.
Grabs of a purported conversation between the residents of the society also confirmed the same. In one of the messages, a woman claimed that the incident happened at 7 a.m. near tower 14 and the victim was beaten badly by the man residing in tower seven. She said that the victim was asked not to feed the dogs inside the society complex and that she abided by it.
Another resident wrote that after the incident, the woman had bruises all over and was crying. She was then given first aid and an ice-pack was also applied on her wounds. However, IANS cannot independently authenticate the message exchanges between the inhabitants of the society.
With the border dispute between India and China at Ladakh region forcing both nations to ask its armed forces to be prepared, this incident of a Chinese national being beaten black and blue, barely a few kilometers from the national capital Delhi, assumes huge significance.