Pooja Chauhan a victim of sexual harassment: NCW

The case of Pooja Chauhan, who made headlines by protesting in the semi-nude in Rajkot, gets murkier with the National Commission for Women (NCW) stating that she had not complained of dowry torture but of sexual harassment.

The NCW team, which met Chauhan earlier this week, said she had not made any complaint of dowry harassment but appeared to have a long and shocking history of being sexually exploited.

"Pooja has not made any complaint of dowry harassment either to police in writing or to us in her statement," Malini Bhattacharya, the NCW member who met Chauhan for a fact-finding report, said.

Bhattacharya, however, said: "She had complained about the harassment she had to go through in her husband's family."

Chauhan (21) hit headlines last week when she walked through the streets of Rajkot in Gujarat in her underwear, alleging torture and harassment by her husband and in-laws.
Local police then filed a dowry harassment case against her husband's family under the Domestic Violence Act.

But the NCW's findings may change the course of the case.
"Pooja seems to have a long history of being sexually harassed. One has to look into that angle too," Bhattacharya said adding that she would submit the report to the NCW in a week.

According to the NCW team, Chauhan had been a victim of child trafficking and had been “misused” by various people. In her statement to the team, Chauhan has given the name of some people who allegedly exploited her sexually.

"We have given the names to the police commissioner," Bhattacharya said.
The police said they were still looking into the domestic violence case.