The Molestation of Girl in Guwahati on Monday night has panicked whole nation. Newslive is a local news channel of Guwahati whose reporters were somehow present on the spot of the whole molestation. Â Newslive Studio was within 200m of the place where whole incident took place.
The Managing Editor of Newslive, Syed Zarir Hussain  Explains how they got informed  about the Molestation that night and the whole story thereafter. For any clarification you can  reach  him  at zarirhussain@yahoo.com.
My head hangs in shame as I try to piece together one of the ugliest stories in my more than two decades of journalistic career – the horrific story of a young girl being virtually ‘gang-raped’ (molestation would be an understatement) by a bunch of ‘beasts’ (they cannot be called human beings) on the streets of Assam’s main city of Guwahati.
July 9. Time around 9.30 p.m. Location – the busy Guwahati-Shillong Road (GS Road) near Christian Basti in downtown Guwahati. A phone call was received at our news desk from one of our off-duty reporters, Gaurav Jyoti Neog, asking for a camera unit, and in the same vein asking one of the copy-editors to inform the police, saying there was a brawl near the Income Tax Office.
Gaurav was shooting the incident with his cell phone while talking from another handset to the news desk (the reporter talking to the news desk asking for a camera unit was audible).
Night duty reporter Dibya Bordoloi and cameraperson Jugal rushed to the spot in less than 10 to 15 minutes, as the incident took place barely 200 metres away from the News Live studios.
Two young girls apparently had some altercation with some people inside the Club Mint Bar where they came to attend a birthday party. The scene shifted from the pub premises to the streets. It was at this point that Gaurav saw one of the girls slapping a man (filmed on his mobile handset) and soon a large crowd of people arrived and went berserk.
The girl who slapped somehow managed to escape, while the other girl was caught by the milling crowd and then began the horrific and shocking incident. By then cameraperson Jugal and night duty reporter Dibya Bordoloi also arrived.
The two reporters did try to rescue and pacify the mob of around 30-odd people (cameraperson Jugal’s tape has evidence of how our two reporters tried to save the girl, asking people not to beat her.). But our three News Live crew were outnumbered by the violent beastly mob.
Jugal, a junior cameraperson, maintained his calm and continued rolling the camera and although the shots at times were jerky he managed to keep on shooting and shooting so well that he not only captured those shocking visuals, but same time helped police identify the rapists (molesters would again be an understatement).
It was a free for all and the helpless girl was stripped and everyone, some young and old, started touching her private parts, all captured on tape.
Police arrived at the spot some 30 minutes after the incident (cannot be sure if the News Live phone call was the first call received by police or someone else called up earlier than us).
The mob began dispersing and the police managed to shove her inside the patrol van and took her to the police station.
Our shell-shocked crew arrived News Live studio around 10.15 p.m. and the instant reaction at the desk was to air some not very disturbing visuals in our 11 p.m. bulletin. A 20-second clip was edited – girl being rescued by the police – and we aired for about 10 minutes, saying a girl was beaten by a mob outside a pub and then stripped.
July 10 (Tuesday): There was a numbed silence at the News Room when I reached around 10 a.m. and my junior colleagues Mousumi and Ranita were seen sobbing and asked me to see the shocking visuals. For a while I was literally speechless and stunned. Tuesday morning bulletins we did not air any images and there was debate in the Newsroom whether or not to air the visuals.
Late in the afternoon, we made conscious editorial decision to telecast the news with the sole intention of fulfilling our social responsibility of showing the viewers the seriousness of this beastly act and same time help police to identify the rapists.
There was a suggestion: Why not give the tape to the police instead of airing the images. We thought the police would simply put it in the cold storage and take it as any other case they normally handle. And hence the decision to telecast the story.
Questions were asked as to our journalistic ethics. I would say our reporters and camerapersons did the right thing under the circumstances. They did try to rescue and pacify first, but then they were outnumbered and hence instead of shutting the camera they did the right thing of rolling it.
Today, people across the nation, including Assam Police chief Jayanta Choudhury, have gone on record thanking News Live for filming the incident.
The saddest and most tragic part is that not a single passerby or a commuter came to the rescue of the girl when she was being stripped. Another sad part is that no civil society members, rights groups, political parties and individuals protested even 100 hours after that barbaric crime.
Only after the national media, especially the national satellite channels, took up the issue on Thursday night did we see some face saving protests in Guwahati.
Even the local print media remained silent during the last few days and picked up the story on Friday and published prominently on Saturday. But News Live continued with its campaign, demanding punishment for the rapists and would do so to its logical end.
Just hope and pray we do not have to report any such story on any media ever and Assam should not hog media headlines nationwide for the wrong reasons.
Watch the whole Molestation Video yourself
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Media must put their humanity first before their secondary role as reporters. It’s a farce to complain about passers-by not doing anything, when you yourself don’t want to intervene.
I agree completely. Whether one is outnumbered or not, it’s our duty to try to stop violence and crime if we happen upon them. What if the girl was one of the cameramen’s sister or mother? Would he stand idly by?? It’s shocking how tamely people can just watch and even get into the act. Sick f***s, if you ask me.
hang the all the person who involved this crime
hang those f***ing rapists and molestors and cut off their penises.
Hey Mr zarirhussain. you should resign with shame. How can you write such hypo critic words. do you really feel sorry for the girl. i am sure you are getting such cheap thrills, now that you and your pathetic news agency is getting all the limelight.
if you had any intelligence or conscience then you would never have aired this dirty clip. it would have been handed to the police. also an edited version would have been aired after protecting the identity of the girl. you are a opportunistic pathetic dirt and a shame to the country, your friends and family. one question to ask – would you have aired the clip if it had been your mother, wife or sister? Can you answer this honestly.
It surprises me that the crew actually had a mic to her face wtf was happening there?? wat real heroism is shown there!!! whether outnumbered or watever start off somewhere! u ppl gt the story of ur life as**les!!
along with those criminals u shd be tried!!!
its amazing u guys managed to get the whole thing on tape and those guys were posing to u’ll like u guys were with them!!! bhanu.. hypocrites is a perfect name for these guys!
THESE PEOPLE SHOULD BE PUT IN JAIL FOR REST OF THEIR LIFE……. HOW SHAMEFUL IS THIS FOR GUWHATI… NOW DAYS NOTHING IS SAFE …NEVER KNOW WHAT CAN HAPPEN. I COULD NOT BELIEVED THAT ALL THESE PEOPLE, NO ONE CAME TO RESCUE THIS GIRL, INSTEAD THEY ALL STARTED TO MOLEST…