Rishi Raj Singh, a senior Kerala IPS officer, has created furore with an idea on ‘woman harassment’.
“A man annoyingly staring at a woman for 14 seconds can be charged with harassment,” said Singh while addressing a state-level empowerment programme for students at Kochi on Independence Day eve.
While his comment has created uproar in various circles, Kerala Sports Minister EP Jayarajan has termed it as “disgusting”. He further said that he would ask the excise minister to examine the speech made by the IPS officer.
During his speech, Singh also asked girls and women to carry a knife or pepper spray in their bags for self-defence.
“Do you carry a knife or chilly or pepper spray in your bags? if you don't the time is long overdue for you to do so,” Singh was quoted Bangalore Mirror as asking to the participants.
He further advised the female participants that martial arts is another option of self-defence and asked them to inform the police if they were harassed by them.
The “14 seconds” statement also doesn’t seem to have gone down well with the Twitterati. Here are some reactions on Twitter to the 14-second comment.
In 2015, Singh was under the radar of the UDF government after his refusal to salute the then Home minister Ramesh Chennithala at the Police Academy in Thrissur.
At that time, Singh was the ADGP, Armed Forces Batallion. He was posted there after being removed as chief vigilance officer, Kerala State Electricity Board for upsetting many in the ruling party by conducting raids against power thefts.
Also known as ‘Singham’ in Kerala, has a huge fan base in the state and even has a number of ‘fan pages’ on Facebook.
