'Arrest Lucknow Girl' trends after woman thrashes cabbie, breaks his phone on busy street

Video grab

New Delhi: In an undated video being shared widely on social media, a young girl can be seen repeatedly slapping a cabbie on a busy street in Uttar Pradesh capital city Lucknow. The girl alleged that she was hit by the cabbie while crossing the road. 

However, in the CCTV footage, the girl can be seen instigating the incident and getting violent. The girl can be hitting at the cab driver multiple times and breaking his phone. A traffic police official and a bystander can be seen intervening and trying to defend him. However, the girl can be seen getting violent with the person who stepped in.

Why is #ArrestLucknowGirl trending? Watch the viral video here pic.twitter.com/zYNLPHASh1

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The incident reportedly took place near Awadh crossing in Lucknow. 

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Central (Lucknow), Chiranjeev Nath Sinha said the case has been filed after the man who was slapped lodged a complaint. "In the case of the viral video of a woman slapping a man, we received a complaint from the man today. Based on the complainant, An FIR was filed in Krishna Nagar police station under relevant sections," DCP Sinha said. In the video, a bespectacled woman dressed in a white t-shirt and jeans and sports shoes, the woman is seen crossing a street at a zebra crossing at Awadh Crossing here even as vehicles stream by and stopping in front of a cab. She proceeds to open the cab driver's door and drags him out and starts slapping and hitting him pulling him by the collar. 

The driver can be seen requesting bystanders to call policewomen to the scene. "Aaplog mahila police bulaye, " he is heard saying in the video. The woman continues assaulting him repeatedly and at one point is seen flinging the phone of the cabbie, which had fallen on the ground. 

In between, the video also shows a traffic policeman intervening and separating the woman from the cabbie and escorting them to the side of the road but after a short while the woman again corners the man and starts hitting him.

Meanwhile, the cab driver identified as Sadat Ali Siddiqui said that after the incident police took both him and the woman to the police station but the police filed a case against him based on her complaint. "Police did not even take my complaint and kept me inside lockup for 24 hours," he added.

"The police made them sit in the police station forcibly and also challaned the driver," the lawyer said. "A complaint was lodged against the woman and against the policemen who wrote the wrong case. Taking action on the complaint a case was registered against the woman in Krishna Nagar police station," the lawyer said adding that they have also asked the police to take action taken against cops who did nothing at the time of the incident and registered a case against the cab driver.

After the clip went viral on the internet, the users reacted to it and debated whether her actions were justified or not.

One Twitter user posted: "First of all how can she cross the road when vehicles are moving? Isn`t that her fault and how can the police allow this ? And pls support students too #ArrestLucknowGirl"

Another microblogger said: "See was trying to suiC/ide...she came in front of moving traffic.. if cab driver wouldn`t control he was gone for killing chanrges.. girl should be given tough lesson."

A few people also asked that the girl be shown no leniency because of her gender. One person tweeted: "Hope there is no leniency shown because of gender. This was an unwarranted, unprovoked act. Kudos to the guy for showing restraint. That must have been very hard."