Leshpal Javalge, 29, has seen it all in just a day — a man running after a young woman with a machete, bystanders mutely watching the tamasha (melee) and the same listless spectators turning into an angry mob ready to lynch the assailant, but not before Mr. Javalge and another young man overpowered the attacker, risking their own lives.
All this happened in broad daylight at Pune’s Sadashiv Peth on Tuesday.
Mr. Javalge, a civil service aspirant, was about to climb the stairs to his study room when he heard a startling cry and saw a machete-wielding man furiously chasing a young woman.
“The incident occurred around 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday. The woman was riding pillion on a male friend’s bike when the assailant, who had been following her, accosted them. He then whipped out a machete which scared away the woman’s companion. As she ran for her life, he continued to chase her,” said Mr. Javalge, the son of a farmer couple from Solapur’s Madha Taluka.
A kabbadi player, Mr. Javalge darted forward and kept on running till he managed to overpower the assailant, “just in time to prevent the man from striking a lethal blow”. Another youngster, Harshad Patil, came running and wrenched the weapon from the assailant’s hand.
According to Pune police authorities, the 21-year-old assailant, identified as Shantanu Jadhav, was a former classmate of the 20-year-old woman. She had stopped talking to him over some issue. He, however, continued to stalk her. She had complained to his family about the harassment, which in turn may have triggered Mr. Jadhav, the police said.
But what disturbed the two brave youngsters the most was the insensitivity of the bystanders.
According to them, once the attacker was overpowered, the bystanders swung into action and pounced on him with whatever object they could lay their hands on.
“Initially, no one dared to help the traumatised woman. A shopkeeper slammed down the shutter on her as she tried to seek refuge in his shop. But after we reined in him, the same mute spectators started thrashing Jadhav. Had we not dragged him out, they would have lynched him,” recollected Mr. Javalge.
Talking about the blood-thirsty mob, Mr. Patil said as an aspiring civil servant it was his duty to send a constructive message to the public about the dangers of taking the law in one’s hands.
Within 24 hours of the incident, Mr. Javalge has become a social media celebrity owing to his heroic intervention. Both he and Mr. Patil are being feted by several outfits and political leaders. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA and former Minister Jitendra Awhad tweeted, saying he was announcing a reward of ₹51,000 each for the two youths “who risked their lives to save a girl’s life”.
But there is a dark undertow to the spine-chilling incident that occurred in broad daylight in the heart of an otherwise peaceful Old Pune area.
As the video went viral, it also brought back the painful memories of the recent murder of 26-year-old Darshana Pawar, who had cleared the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) exam. Ms. Pawar, the daughter of a driver at a sugar mill in Ahmednagar district’s Kopargaon, had recently qualified for the post of Range Forest Officer (RFO). On June 18, her body was found at the foothills of Rajgad Fort, allegedly murdered by a friend after she rejected his marriage proposal.
Something similar happened in Delhi on May 28. Brushing aside all the compliments showered upon him, Mr. Javalge said he remembers the CCTV video which captured the brutal murder of a 16-year-old girl by her male friend in outer north Delhi’s Shahbad Dairy area stirred Mr. Javalge into action. “I knew I couldn’t let another girl die like that.”
