Virality and truth, a time immemorial debate that will never quite come to an end. A dog rescuer in Indore, Madhya Pradesh named Sakshi Sharma put up a video on Saturday. The video was an emotional appeal to netizens about how she has been pushed to the brink by the violence she has been subjected to.
Following her video, on Sunday the Indore Police came out with a statement refusing her allegations of inaction and not helping her. The police also asked netizens to refrain from believing videos circulating on the internet.
Sakshi Sharma's video makes harsh allegations
The internet has become a space for voices, sometimes they're of one side in a debate. It's up to the viewer to decide how true an allegation may be. Over the weekend Sakshi Sharma's moving video on the atrocities committed against her in Indore has been reaching the farthest corners of the country.
Many have wondered what the police were doing. For a bit of background, Sakshi Sharma is a resident of Indore, Madhya Pradesh and a dog rescuer. She has been rescuing abandoned dogs and helping them survive. In her latest video which she calls her 'last' Sharma narrated everything, she's been through.
She said she had reached out to officials, to the police and to politicians with no action being taken. She said she's being harassed by the people in the area. She said the police always told her that it's because she isn't married and keeps dogs at home.
In the video, she said, "The police is humiliating me so much, and torturing me so much that for the past 10 months I have been trying to settle the situation down only thinking that if I am not here these 40 children might be homeless. Three days back my 3-year-old dog that I raised on my own, this mob killed my dog and broke its neck and broke its 4 legs. When I said that I'd file an FIR and get a post-mortem the next day the body went missing."
She claimed an "attempt to sexual abuse, physical abuse and mental abuse," she also added that she sleeps with a knife under her pillow, she went so far to say that the police and the circumstances are pushing her to "commit suicide," she said. The video has gone viral and many concerned netizens have asked authorities to take action against the culprits. They've also asked for urgent help for her.
Indore Police refutes Sakshi Sharma's claims
On the other hand, the Indore Police soon after the case came to light and it became a nationwide conversation, released their statement. This is where the problem for netizens begins. The police have interestingly denied all the charges against them.
Further, the police have said that Sakshi Sharma is not being truthful about what she does saying that she has a history of lying and deceiving her landlords. They added that her stance on protecting animal rights is also false.
This has made it very hard to discern the truth. In their statement, the police said, "She has said that the police haven't investigated the matter, although on 9th March 2020 on her report under the IPC sections 112, 294, 323 and 506 under which 70-year-old Shobharam was booked and arrested. However, she believes we haven't investigated the matter."
The Indore Police has said that her life is not under threat and that they've interrogated and investigated all the matters related to her. Contrastingly, the police asserted that her real name is Sabreen Bhanu from Meerut and in many places as well as police stations there have been complaints against her. She has been changing names and she has not been paying rent to her landlords in various places.
The police have appealed to people not to take videos at face value and understand both sides of the matter before forming an opinion. The police also said they are willing to help Sakshi in all the legal ways they can.
Netizens watching both sides of the debate have appealed for an independent investigation into the matter. While nobody knows what will be the outcome of the prevailing situation, perhaps opinions need to be restrained at this point.
