Sarvjeet Singh, the man who was accused of harassment, obscene remarks and molestation at a Delhi traffic signal by AAP member Jasleen Kaur in 2015, has finally been acquitted by the court. Singh shared the news through a Facebook post and thanked the people who believed him and stood by him when the entire social media had declared him a criminal just on the basis of the Kaur’s words.
Activist Deepika Bharadwaj shared Sarvjeet Singh’s post and stated that Sarvjeet has been acquitted of all charges by the court after four long years of trial.
Four years. Endless dates. Endless humiliation & suffering for him & his family by media & society.
BUT FINALLY@Sarvjee36046032 HAS WON THE CASE IN HIS FAVOR. ACQUITTED OF ALL CHARGES by COURT. #SarvjeetSingh #JasleenKaur pic.twitter.com/PP23WQot2H
— Deepika Bhardwaj (@DeepikaBhardwaj) October 24, 2019
Sarvjeet Singh has been attending trials for four long years. Jasleen Kaur did not attend trials for three years. After missing 14 trial dates in the court, she had made her first appearance in December last year. She had claimed that she was away because she had ‘academic commitments’ in Canada.
The Case
On August 23, 2015, Jasleen Kaur, a student of Delhi’s St Stephen’s College and an AAP member had posted a photo of Singh at a traffic signal and had claimed that he had passed obscene comments at her and had threatened her as she tried to click his photo.
Read: Top Lies spread by Indian Media in August 2015
Kaur’s Facebook post had gone viral within hours. Sarvjeet Singh, however, had commented on Kaur’s photo identifying himself as the guy in the viral post and had stated that he was innocent and it was Jasleen who had threatened him when he had declined to follow her directions to jump the traffic signal.
Singh was soon arrested by the police. As the case got highlighted as another example of the harassment that Delhi girls face every day, celebrities and politicians also joined in to congratulate Jasleen as a brave young lady. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had also applauded Jasleen.
Kaur has become an instant celebrity. As per aanIndia Today report, Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi had announced a reward of Rs 5000 for Kaur for her ‘bravery’.
Eye witness claim
Soon after Sarvjeet’s arrest and eye witness examinations, the case started falling flat. Vishwajeet Singh, who was present at the location, stated that Sarvjeet was innocent and it was, in fact, Jasleen who had verbally abused and misbahved with Sarvjeet. Kaur had again taken to social media to claim she was right and the eye witness accounts were false.
The Trial
For all these years, Sarvjeet Singh had dealt with the stigma of being the harasser. In 2016, he had again appealed to the people through a social media post, detailing how it was so easy to falsely accuse a man of harassment and how it is wrong to paint someone a victim and another person a harasser just on the basis of their gender.
Read: Perils of living in the age of instant outrage by media and social media
He also stated that he had lost many job oppurtunities beause his face has become ‘famous’ as that of a harasser and he could not even travel outside Delhi without informing the police.
Media hype and consequences
Almost all media channels had jumped in instantly to paint Sarvjeet as a pervert and a criminal. Social Media users had also widely shared Jasleen’s post and other related posts, instantly declaring Sarvjeet as a pervert. As the truth started becoming clear, it slowly became one of the cases where ‘trial by media’ totally ignored the truth and falsely branded someone as guilty. Times Now was even ordered to apologise and pay a fine by NBSA for their incessant coverage of the case wrongly protraying Sarvjeet as guilty before the courts did.
