Two days after a Kashmiri woman had made allegations against her Delhi landlady claiming that they were assaulted and attacked for being a ‘Kashmiri’, the landlady of the residence against whom the allegations were made, has written a scathing letter to Delhi Commission of Woman chief Swati Maliwal asking the commission to allow her to submit facts pertaining to the matter before initiating actions against her.
The letter by Taruna Makhija comes after Delhi Commission of Women had taken suo-moto cognizance of the issue and had issued a notice to the Delhi Police in connection with the case.
दिल्ली में एक कश्मीरी लड़की पर मकान मालिकों द्वारा मारपीट और बदतमीज़ी की घटना सामने आई है। हम दिल्ली पुलिस को नोटिस इशू कर रहे हैं, मामले में FIR हो और जल्द से जल्द दोषियों पर कार्यवाई हो। pic.twitter.com/vcWC09EZpa
— Swati Maliwal (@SwatiJaiHind) October 15, 2020
However, in the light of Delhi Commission of Woman’s notice to Delhi Police seeking against her, the landlady of the property in which the two Kashmiri women were staying for a few months, has written a letter on Friday urging the women panel to allow her to present facts pertaining to the matter.
In her letter to Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal, Taruna Makhija said that she was a first-generation struggling woman entrepreneur providing safe comfortable rental spaces for working women in Delhi. In the letter, accessed by OpIndia, Makhija said that she was sure that DCW cared for all women and would like to hear her side of the story.
“I hear that you are a very just person. You sent a letter to Police asking them to register a case without providing any opportunity to me. Maybe the social media activism by the Kashmiri girl moved you. But I think I am equally a citizen of India, You hold a very sensitive post in respect of security of the women in the city. I am sure you will give me an opportunity to meet,” Taruna Makhija wrote in her letter to DCW.
FIR be registered against me on basis of tweet by a third party? No inquiry . Is government encouraging misuse of social media pic.twitter.com/S2TmVngBGD
— Taruna Makhija (@taruna_makhija) October 16, 2020
Narrating her ordeal, Taruna Makhija put forward the entire sequence of events and provided evidence that dismissed all the allegations made against her by the two Kashmiri women.
“One of the two sisters, Yuhana Manzoor Bhat approached me through a broker to take my serviced apartment on rent. She entered without paying complete advances. I had a struggle to get her sign on the agreement & obtain some security”.
She added, “Neighbours & RWA complained that strange 50-year-old people come on their floor & have late night parties and thereby creating nuisance. It seems some of them fired in the air on the birthday party of Ms.Fiza Noor Manzoor Bhat on 19th June 2020 (Copy of messages on RWA group & her passport is enclosed). I immediately informed that local Police & asked these girls to vacate. They were called by the local Police & warned.”
Have evidence to prove her side of story, says Makhija
In her letter, Taruna said she had a tough time asking them to pay their rentals and asserted that she had evidence and records to prove her statements. The landlady said that the two Kashmiri women attacked and assaulted the elderly meter reader who came to disconnect the electricity for non-payment of bills. They have assaulted the housekeeping lady Namita residing downstairs in the servant quarter, she added in her letter to Swati Maliwal.
“Day before Yesterday I got to know that they were vacating my place but in process have broken my furniture. I called 100 number helpline & rushed to the site along with Police. They hurled abuses at Police & me. Finally I left the space along with Police. I never accused them of being ‘Terrorists’,” Taruna Makhija said in her letter.
In her letter, Makhija asked Maliwal to allow her to share records with the commission. “Now that you have taken suo-moto cognizance of their false social media tweets, I have to struggle more to survive and spend on lawyers,” she added.
Requesting Swati Maliwal to be objective in the case, she said taking such suo-moto action against people without hearing the other side will only encourage girls to misuse the law without any base or evidence and will lead to these girls to get scot-free of dues and damages to her.
“Our country talks about women empowerment and when I am working hard to do establish myself is this really fair to what I have to go through? Have I done anything wrong in asking them to pay their rental and utility bills that I have to go through or am I expected to pay the rentals & electricity bills on their behalf,” Makhija asked Swati Maliwal in her letter.
The curious case of Kashmiri girls and their allegations of being attacked
On Wednesday, a Kashmiri woman residing in southeast Delhi had claimed that she was assaulted and abused by her landlady for being a ‘Kashmiri’.
Following that various media outlets had reported a story of an attack against a Kashmiri woman named Noor Bhat. The media reports suggested that the Kashmiri woman was assaulted and abused by her landlady and a man in Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar. A Kashmiri woman identified as Noor Bhat, who belongs to Srinagar in Kashmir, had taken to Twitter to claim that her landlady entered the house with a man whom “she had never seen before”. She alleged that the landlady called her a ‘terrorist’ because they were from Kashmir.
Soon after their allegations, DCW chief Swati Maliwal had jumped into the scene to take the matter into cognizance and also issued a notice to Delhi Police to look into the alleged attacks against the Kashmiri woman in Delhi.
However, days after Noor Bhat made strong allegations against her landlady, OpIndia had accessed details and evidence that were completely contradictory to the allegations made by Noor Bhat.
Speaking to OpIndia, the landlady Taruna Makhija had said that the allegations made by Noor Bhat were a blatant lie. Makhija alleged that two sisters were staying in their residence from the past four months and were extremely irregular in paying the rent. The landlady alleged that the Kashmiri women behaved in a most atrocious manner and also created repeated nuisance in the housing complex.
Taruna Makhija had also informed that her tenants have not paid their electricity bill for months, and around Rs 70000-75000 is due to be paid. Addition to that, the allegations put up against the landlady by Noor Bhat, claiming that she was attacked and abused as a ‘terrorist’ falls flat as there is no evidence to back her claim.
The evidence, images and videos had revealed that the two Kashmiri women, instead of clearing their dues, had created a ruckus to falsely accuse the landlady of harassing them. Shockingly, the ‘liberal-secular’ who are often desperate for stories which depict Kashmiri as ‘victims’ had latched onto it without even verifying facts of the matter.
