Police have put in place a new mechanism to deal with rape complaints. The Department has established a Rape Crisis Intervention Centre (RCIC) as a one-stop centre to deal with any rape case relating to women or child.
“It will be a one-stop help centre where trained psychologists, legal experts, women police officers and staffs of Women and Child and Social Welfare Departments will extend all assistance to the victims and will manage the cases. Such centre will help the traumatised to avoid mental stress reporting at police station,” said Inspector General (IG) of Police, Praveer Ranjan.
He said whenever rape case gets reported the multidisciplinary team would go to the place of the victim and render all assistance.
Denying allegations of crime against women rising alarmingly in recent times, Mr. Ranjan said the statistics showed that crimes against women were fewer in number compared to the data from the previous year. Countering the claim by some quarters that the crime rate was shooting up, Mr. Ranjan said, “This is not true’’.
Mr. Ranjan also said separate meeting would be conducted to sensitise police to the guidelines. He said with the assistance of the Department of Woman and Child Welfare, an awareness programme is under formulation and police officer Rachna Singh has been designated as nodal officer for this initiative. He also added that courses in self-defences would be conducted at schools, colleges and University also on a regular basis.
The IG said that the criteria for physical fitness for the post of woman constable had been relaxed for more to participate in the recruitment due in October.
