The Madras High Court has directed the State government to file a detailed affidavit explaining steps taken by it so far and those under contemplation to prevent incidents such as the one that took place at Adambakkam on November 14 when a 21-year-old software engineer S. Induja was burnt alive.
Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M. Sundar passed the interim order on a public interest litigation petition filed by advocate A. P. Suryaprakasam who wanted a special team of women police officers to be appointed in every police station to protect women who were stalked, eve-teased and subjected to mental and physical violence.
The petitioner, in his affidavit, said: “Some beasts in the garb of human beings are finding pleasure in killing innocent young girls by pouring kerosene and petrol on them and setting them ablaze for the simple reason that these girls reject the one-sided love expressed by men or refuse to marry people they don’t like.
“In all these cases, the youths, who indulge in violence and harm the young girls, exhibit male chauvinism and unwillingness to accept rejection. They treat rejection as failure and get disappointed. These beasts treat the victim girls as dolls and fail to understand that a person should be wooed and not owned.”
Recalling a judgement passed by the Supreme Court in 2015 for payment of compensation of ₹3 lakh each to the victims of acid attack, the petitioner said that there was no difference between victims of acid attacks and victims of burn injuries caused by “neo-Romeos” due to the failure of the police to provide protection to the girls.
Since the police had put in place a stringent mechanism to curb charging of exorbitant rates of interest by money-lenders, Mr. Suryaprakasam said a similar mechanism should be established for dealing with complaints of stalking and eve-teasing too in order to prevents incidents such as in Adambakkam.
