Family members and victims in numerous sexual assault cases are waiting for justice for many years in Andhra Pradesh, particularly in some sensational cases that shook the nation’s conscience.
“Is the law taking its own course? If so, why are some gruesome cases pending and the suspects roaming around freely?”
These were the pertinent questions being asked by the people in the wake of the killing of the four suspects in the vet’s rape and murder case.
Reacting to the action of the Telangana police, Home Minister M. Sucharitha on Friday commented that the “law took its own course.”
Interestingly, the High Court and the local courts rapped the police over the poor investigation in some cases and directed them to re-investigate the heinous crimes against women and girls.
POCSO cases
According to the police, 14,048 cases of crime against women were registered in the State and 12,653 cases were booked in 2019 (up to October end). Police registered 3,040 cases under Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2013 (Nirbhaya Act) last year and 2,671 this year.
Likewise, 1,220 cases were registered under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in 2018, and 1,080 cases have been registered till October 31, this year in Andhra Pradesh, the police said.
Accused acquitted
The sexual assault and murder of a B. Pharmacy student, which created a furore all over the country, is pending final adjudication for the last 12 years. The student, a native of Guntur district, was sexually assaulted and killed by some miscreants in Sri Durga Ladies Hostel at Ibrahimpatnam in Vijayawada on December 27, 2007.
A local court sentenced the suspect, Pidatala Satyam Babu, for life in 2007 in the case. However, the High Court of A.P. and Telangana acquitted him in 2017 and blamed the police for poor investigation. Successive governments constituted Special Investigation Teams (SIT) and now the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is investigating the case.
Similar case
The Patamata police in Vijayawada Police Commissionerate are probing the sexual assault and murder of a 41-year-old woman. The victim, wife of a bank officer, was assaulted and killed in her flat at Yanamalakuduru in Vijayawada on March 15, 2014.
Police arrested six persons, including a car driver (who was her neighbour) and five of his friends who allegedly committed the brutal offence.
Responding to the public outcry, then Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan intervened and directed the police to speed up investigation in the case. Investigation officers recovered the victim’s body two days after the crime from Bandar Canal in the city.
However, the Mahila Sessions Court, acquitted all the six suspects in the case on July 29, 2015, saying that the case was built up on circumstantial evidence, which was not sufficient to punish the suspects. The judge, then, commented that there were lapses in police investigation.
Later, the police filed a plea in the High Court on the lower court’s verdict.
Dachepalli incident
In June 2017, a dismissed Army jawan reportedly kidnapped and sexually assaulted a 13-year-old minor girl in Battiprolu mandal of Guntur district.
A team of police officers arrested the BSF jawan in Samba Sector of Jammu and Kashmir.
Then Director-General of Police (DGP) N. Sambsiva Rao said there were lapses in investigation in the minor girl’s kidnap case.
In another case, a 14-year-old minor girl was allegedly impregnated by a political leader in Dachepalli in Guntur district in May 2018. Police booked a case and ait continues to be under investigation.
