E-Paper
Unwanted phone calls, stalking main problems faced by women in city, HC told
New Delhi
New Delhi
The Delhi police have informed the high court about a bunch of steps that have been taken for the safety of women in the national capital, including the introduction of anti-stalking helpline for women.
In a status report — filed by advocates Rahul Mehra and Chaitanya Gosain — the court was told that one of the main problems faced by women in the city is receiving ‘obnoxious telephone calls and stalking.’
“There are thousands of such calls that women complain about everyday. Hence, all distress calls from women about stalking and are diverted to a special anti-stalking team in the central police control room, which functions 24x7. From here, the staff call the number from where the calls were made to the woman. The staff then effectively deal with the aggressor, which is the demand of most of the complainants.....In case of stalking calls, it is immediately forwarded to the local police in real time through the cyber highway network for necessary action,” the report filed last month in the high court said.
The status report was filed in a case, which the court had initiated suo-motu, after the December 16 gang rape where a 23-year-old physiotherapy student was gangraped in a moving bus. The court since has been passing orders at regular intervals for monitoring women safety in the city.
Detailing the steps taken by the police, the court was told that no jurisdictional dispute will be allowed to delay police response on a complaint related to crimes against women. Immediate action will be taken by the officer on receipt of complaint to apprehend the accused and to provide medical and other assistance without going into the jurisdictional issues.
The police also said that directions have been issued for handling the complaints of women with “respect and sympathy”.
“Complaints made by women are recorded verbatim, as stated by them, preferably by a lady police officer and investigated without any uncalled for remarks or observations by the police officers concerned,” the report read.
The police also said that the visibility of the policemen on the roads have been increased for keeping tabs on criminals at the beat level. Apart from this, additional and integrated police pickets have been increased for dynamic pickets checking at vulnerable points.
