Uddhav Thackeray calls for a meeting with police chiefs, home department officials on women’s safety

Uddhav Thackeray’s call for a meeting comes days after the rape and brutalisation of a 34-year-old woman rocked financial capital Mumbai.

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray is scheduled to meet the chiefs of police forces, Government Railway Police (GRP) commissioner and senior officials of the home department on Monday to discuss the issue of women’s safety in the state.

The Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was subjected to intense criticism by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. (HT Photo)

Thackeray’s call for a meeting comes days after the rape and brutalisation of a 34-year-old woman rocked financial capital Mumbai.

The Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was subjected to intense criticism by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Leader of opposition in the legislative council Pravin Darekar said the patience of women has run out due to such “repeated” offences, which occur due to “carelessness of the government”.

“The incident has only happened due to the carelessness of the government. We want an action plan for such crimes to not happen in the future. Rape incidents have happened in Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, Amravati, Ahmednagar, Palghar and Vasai, where women were brutalised. Now the Sakinaka incident is chilling; it is as gruesome as the Nirbhaya rape case in Delhi,” Darekar said.

The editorial also condemned comparisons with similar tragedies in Hathras and Kathua, alleging that the culprits in such cases were protected by the state and there were delays in arrests but the 45-year-old accused in the Sakinaka incident was arrested by police without delay.

The party also defended Mumbai police commissioner Hemant Nagrale's comment that police cannot be present at all the scenes of crime, adding that police in all states will agree with his opinion. Nagrale was criticised by a member of the National Commission for Women (NCW) for his comment.

"The statement is extremely unfortunate. Police can't run away from their responsibility,” Chandramukhi Devi, an NCW member told reporters on Sunday. Nagrale had defended Mumbai police by insisting that they responded in a timely manner.