Women activists to lay siege to RGV meet venue

Why have the police not taken action against him, they ask

Ram Gopal Varma

Women organisations in the city are planning to lay siege to the venue where film director Ram Gopal Varma is planning to hold a meeting on March 7.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, AIDWA State secretary D. Ramadevi said that after their persistent efforts, the city police had booked five cases against the director under IPC Sections 354 A, 500, 504 and 509 and under Section 67 of IT Act.

“But we are surprised that the police have not taken any action against him. We demand that he (RGV) be arrested immediately and should not be allowed to conduct any kind of meetings,” Ms. Ramadevi said.“If permission is given, we will lay a siege to the venue and will not allow the event to happen,” said AIDWA City secretary R.N. Madhavi.

Media monitoring panel

The AIDWA members demanded the constitution of a media monitoring committee by the government. “The committee should function akin to the Censor Board and should be given powers to ban movies and television serials that show women in bad light and also ban films such as

God Sex and Truth (GST), which was made by RGV,” said Ms. Ramadevi.

Commenting on the recent alleged rape of a woman employee of a private firm in the Apparel City at Atchutapuram, Ms. Ramadevi said, “The victim had filed complaint against eight persons, but so far only two have been arrested. We demand that the others be arrested immediately.”

Helpless victims

According to her, sexual violence against women has been on the rise in private companies, and many firms do not even have internal committees to take complaints from the harassed women employees.