Japanese woman who was molested on Holi opens up after leaving India

The 22-year-old Japanese woman who was harassed on the streets of India’s capital New Delhi during the Holi celebration has finally opened up about the incident.

India was outraged after a video of a group of men forcefully smearing colours, smashing an egg on her head and groping her went viral.

The girl, named Megumi (as per her Twitter ID), had shared the video of the incident on the social media platform, but she deleted it shortly afterwards, saying that she was “terrified” by the responses to the video, and thus decided to remove the tweet.

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She also described the whole incident as “unfortunate”.

“On March 9th, I tweeted a video of the Indian festival Holi, but after that, the number of RTs and DMs increased more than I had imagined, and I was terrified, so I deleted the tweet,” a rough translation available of her tweet said.

“I sincerely apologize to those who were offended by the video,” she said.

Talking about the incident, Megumi said that she "participated in the festival with 35 of her friends".

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"I had heard that it was very dangerous for a woman to go out alone during the daytime at the Holi festival, an Indian festival that I participated in, so I participated in the event with a total of 35 other friends," she said.

The 22-year-old foreigner also expressed her love for India saying, "I love everything about India, I have been there many times and it is a fascinating country. India and Japan will forever be 'Tomodachi' (friends)."

Megumi, however, apologised for sharing the video on Twitter saying that her aim was to highlight the positive aspects of the Indian festival.

“However, I sincerely apologize for causing concern to many people through videos and Twitter. I would like to express my sincere apologies for causing concern and anxiety in many ways, even though my goal was to convey the positive aspects and joys of India. really sorry,” she tweeted.

On Saturday, the Delhi Police had caught three people, one of them being a juvenile, from the Paharganj area of central Delhi after the video of the incident went viral.

Neither the Japanese Embassy nor the woman had filed a complaint. The police’s action came a day after the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) Chairperson Swati Maliwal had issued a notice to Delhi Police to examine the video and arrest the perpetrators.

"Very disturbing videos getting viral on social media showing sexual harassment with foreign nationals on Holi! I am issuing notice to Delhi Police to examine these videos and arrest the perpetrators! Completely shameful behaviour!" Maliwal tweeted on Friday.

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