Uttar Pradesh: 'Majnu cage' for roadside Romeos in Muzzaffarnagar

As a result of the increasing incidents of eve-teasing and molestation in western parts of Uttar Pradesh, the district magistrate of Muzzaffarnagar has directed the police to create special 'Majnu cages' for 'Romeos', in which louts accused of harassing women will be confined. The cages will then be placed in public places to shame the culprits.

DM Nikhil Chand Shukla has given directed the police to earmark areas in the city, especially near girls' schools and colleges, where eve-teasing is rampant. Officers will be deployed in civilian clothes to quickly cage men who are caught harassing girls.

The 'majnu cage' drive will be started by four teams under the supervision of the women's police station in-charge, Kotvali, Civil lines and Mandi police stations.

The directive has been issued as the Muzaffarnagar administration has had to deal with a slew of eve-teasing cases recently, one of which nearly started another full-blown riot. It wants to ensure that there is no repeat of incidents that led to the 2013 Muzzaffarnagar clashes, which began after reports came in from Kaval of two brothers who allegedly killed an accused charged with molesting their sister.

Later, one of the two was lynched by a mob, setting off violence that eventually displaced more than 50,000 people and killed close to 60.

Recently on 6 September, in Charthaval town of Muzaffarnagar, some ruffians pulled out school girls from their bus when some of them resisted their advances. Several girls were injured in the melee.

The case soon took a communal colour after the miscreants, who were from a particular community, called their friends who faced off with the girls' relatives. Four persons, two from each community, were booked and sent to jail.

On 7 September, too, at Garhipukhta, some miscreants misbehaved with a group of school girls and even tried to throw acid on them when they protested.