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Police find MLA guilty of molestation

Special Correspondent

Rama Rao outraged modesty of girl students, says SP’s report

DSP P. Venkatarama Reddy leaving SHRC office after submitting the report in Hyderabad on Friday.

HYDERABAD: B. Balakrishna, Superintendent of Police of West Godavari district, has concluded that Telugu Desam MLA of Kovvur T.V. Rama Rao was indeed guilty of outraging the modesty of girl students from Kerala at the nursing college run by him at Nidadavole.

The SP’s finding was contained in a report to the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) here which had sought his response following a complaint lodged by the victims last week.

The document was delivered to SHRC chairman B. Subhashan Reddy in a sealed cover on Friday by Narsapur DSP P. Venkatarama Reddy who is in-charge of Kovvur division.

Quoting the report, Justice Reddy told media persons that the girls did not initially reveal the acts of the MLA against them out of fear. However, investigation by police revealed that Mr. Rao was liable to be booked under Sec. 354 of Indian Penal Code (assault or criminal force on woman with intent to outrage her modesty).

The SP informed that the case was transferred to the Crime Investigation Department (CID) for further investigation into other aspects, including the charge of murder against the MLA, Justice Reddy added. He was given to understand that the forensic test by a lab in Vijayawada did not confirm blood stains in support of the charge of murder, but a second opinion was being obtained from the AP State Forensic Science Laboratory here.

Additional SP of CID Gopalraju, who is the investigating officer in the case, appeared before Justice Reddy in response to summons issued to him following submission of the West Godavari SP’s report. The chairman asked him to furnish details of the investigation on August 3.

He also posted for hearing the petition of the MLA alleging violation of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for the same day.

Admission

The SHRC chairman directed the government to admit the five nursing students in its institutions since they were poor and did not have money to seek fresh admission in a different college and the college management had refused to return the fee.

Director of Medical Education K.N. Sudha Ramana earlier submitted to Justice Reddy that there were vacancies in government nursing colleges for the purpose of admitting the victims.

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