The Human Rights Forum (HRF) once again reiterates its demand for immediate arrest of the Greyhounds police personnel who raped 11 kondh women of Vakapalli in G Madugula mandal of Visakhapatnam district on August 20 and their criminal prosecution.
It is deplorable that the perpetrators of this heinous crime have not been identified and arrested even seven weeks after the incident. An FIR was lodged in Paderu on August 20 itself under IPC Section 376 (ii) (g) relating to gang-rape as well as relevant provisions of the SC, ST (Prevention of Atrocities Act) 1989. In such serious offences, normally a set of investigative procedures are initiated. Among these are immediate identification of the accused and their arrest. That this has not happened in spite of a sustained agitation by the 11 women themselves as well as other organisations standing in solidarity with them shows clearly that the government is shielding the concerned Greyhounds policemen. This gives rise to a basic question: Are police personnel above the law?
The whole issue assumes additional significance in the light of media reports that the Tribal Welfare secretary Mr Nagi Reddy, who was asked to inquire into the incident by the government, has stated that it was plausible that rape had indeed taken place. It is shameless on the part of the government to have sat on the report for nearly four weeks.
We demand that apart from arrest of the policemen, the entire case must be handed over to the CBI since the State is not proceeding apace with the criminal investigation. The government must also immediately place before the public Mr Nagi Reddy’s inquiry report into the Vakapalli rape case.
V S Krishna
HRF State secretary
03.10.2007
Visakhapatnam