Special police units in Punjab to tackle sexual assault cases

Stunned by the "shameful" conduct of the police which drove a gangrape victim to suicide in Patiala district, the Punjab police have decided to set up specialised units to deal with serious cases of sexual assaults on women.

Stunned by the "shameful" conduct of the police which drove a gangrape victim to suicide in Patiala district, the Punjab police have decided to set up specialised units to deal with serious cases of sexual assaults on women.

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These multi-disciplinary teams, to be called Sexual Assault Response Teams (SART), would be set up on the lines of similar teams in the United Kingdom.

"The personnel of these units will be trained specifically in how to deal with cases of sexual assaults on women," Dinkar Gupta, additional director general of police (ADGP), law and order, told HT.

To be headed by male or female officers, the teams would be sensitsed about how heinous crimes such as rape differ from other incidents, as the victims of rape suffer stigma that could lead to even suicide, as it happened in the Patiala case.