The Hindu : Sheila demands life term for rape

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 26, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Sheila demands life term for rape

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MARCH 25. Expressing serious concern over the law and order situation in the Capital, especially with regard to women, the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, today asserted that women in Delhi were not only feeling unsafe but also suffered from a sense of insecurity in view of the spate of rape and harassment cases including foreign tourists.

Replying to a calling attention motion moved by Kiran Walia (Congress) and Ramvir Singh Bidhuri (Nationalist Congress Party) in the House about incidents of rape and murder of women including foreigners in Delhi, the Chief Minister said the time had come when amendments should be made into the Indian Penal Code Act to incorporate life imprisonment for rape. In addition, it was important that a special police force for women be raised and effective policing undertaken in the vulnerable areas of the Capital. Regretting that no effective reply had been received from the Deputy Prime Minister and the Central Government on these issues for months together, Ms. Dikshit said there was also a need to put in place stringent censor rules so that impressionable minds were not corrupted and their attention was not diverted.

Ms. Dikshit said according to the figures provided by the police, the incidents of rape had gone up from 403 in 2002 to 490 in 2003. This has not only given a bad name to the Capital but also the country as a number of foreign tourists or nationals were also victims of such incidents. "The women of the Capital cannot venture out of their homes during night without feeling insecure. There is an urgent need to set up special courts for trying such cases and the culprits should be handed life imprisonment for such criminal and inhuman acts."

However, Ms. Dikshit said that until and unless police was brought under the Delhi Government, no accountability could be brought into the force. She cited the example of the Development Minister, Raj Kumar Chauhan, who was made to wait for four hours in a police station just to get a copy of the First Information Report (FIR). Refuting allegations that she had gone out of the way to seek the intervention of the Lieutenant-Governor to water down the case regarding recovery of Rs. 10,000 from some part of her residence, Ms. Dikshit said that she had told the Lieutenant-Governor that it was at her instance that a complaint in this regard was filed and the police were bent upon harassing her staff. It could have been the handiwork of some Bharatiya Janata Party man as was the case with the leakage of question papers recently, she said.

Stating that certain steps had been taken by the police and the Delhi Government to restore the confidence of the people, Ms. Dikshit said it had been decided to post home guards in DTC buses on certain routes. However, she said that till Delhi was granted Statehood and had control over police, such a situation would continue to take place.

Moving the motion, Ms. Walia said that the recent incidents of rape and killings of foreign nationals had shaken the confidence of the people in police and there was an urgent need to take corrective steps. She was critical of the fact that women continue to face harassment at the hands of the police whenever they go to a police station to lodge a complaint or seek action against the culprits.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi