Women’s organisations will seek the facility of online registration of police complaints and FIRs of crimes against women.
The decision was arrived at by representatives of nine activist groups working with women in the State.
Feminist Association for Social Action, which held a meeting of the various groups at Andhra Mahila Sabha on Saturday, said the decision was made specifically to address complaints of sexual assault on women.
The association has drafted five recommendations including a specialised police investigation team to probe into such crimes and, if possible, include a psychologist in the team.
“Crime branch teams must have well-equipped mobile forensic vans to reach the site of crime within a specific time limit. We insist that all police investigations be completed in two weeks and not 90 days as is now in force,” said Sarah Mathews, a member of the association. Another demand of the women’s groups is the setting up of fast track courts and mahila courts to deal with cases regarding crime against women. The judges of these courts should also undergo sessions in gender sensitisation to enable them to handle the cases sensitively.
Former DGP R. Nataraj, who also served as chairman of the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission, cited his experience with electronic registrations to note that electronic filing of complaints would eliminate clash over police jurisdictions and allow for quicker response. Advocate Sheila Jayaprakash too spoke.
