New Delhi: The father of the woman motorcyclist whose video of a car hitting her on Gurugram’s Golf Course Road went viral this week said he learned about the incident only through news reports a day later, because his daughter had kept it from the family.
“This is straight-up misogyny,” said Roshan Chauhan, father of Shivani Chauhan, known on social media as Siya. “He saw a woman riding a bike and got so angry. People with such a mindset hate women and believe that only they have the right to do certain things such as ride a bike or a car. His ego must have been hurt seeing my daughter ride a bike,” he said.
Gurugram Police have taken suo motu cognisance of the incident and registered an FIR at the Sector 56 Police Station against the car driver, who has now been arrested.
Chauhan said his daughter came home, concealed her pain, and quietly approached the police without telling anyone at home—most likely, he added, because she did not want them to worry. Her brother knew what had happened but had been asked not to tell their parents.
“She had been injured. Her hand has injuries, which could have been so much more severe if that man had his way. She didn’t even tell us about them. I only got to know a day after the incident, and that too through the media. It was only after I found out and asked her that she showed me her injuries and explained the entire situation to me in person,” he said.
According to allegations made in the video shared on social media, the car followed the group of riders on Golf Course Road. Its occupants rolled down their windows and began misbehaving, and Siya asked them to maintain distance.
Chauhan alleged the collision was deliberate and said the family had pressed for charges accordingly. A case was registered and the accused arrested, he said, adding that the sections invoked include attempt to murder.
“If I had known about this, I would have filed an FIR against that person myself,” he added.
‘My daughter not a rash driver’
When Siya tried to move ahead of the white car, it allegedly struck her motorcycle while overtaking, throwing her onto the road as her bike dragged for several metres. The car fled the spot. The sequence was captured on a camera mounted on the motorcycle, and the footage has since gone viral.
After looking at the video, Chauhan is certain that this was no accident.
“This was no accident, even though he (the car driver) is trying to portray it as one. There are so many cars on the road at any given time, some even flouting norms—but do we ever see them collide like this? He did not even stop after hitting her, and is now making reels in the media saying it was not his fault. Such people should not be left in the open. They are a threat to our daughters’ independence,” he said.
Chauhan also rejected the accused driver’s suggestion that his daughter had been riding rashly. Siya, who lives with her family in Gurugram, took up biking about five months ago, he said, and would ride with a group of other bikers.
“She would often go out with friends to ride around for an hour or so. They would go to a cafe for chai or coffee, which was their usual stopover, and then come back home. She would generally leave at 5 and be back by 6. This was a new activity she would do for leisure. The driver claiming she was driving roughly is completely false—she never drives fast; she is extremely careful,” he said.
Siya has a degree in fashion design and contested the municipal corporation election from Kalkaji on an Aam Aadmi Party ticket in 2022.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)