The Tamil Nadu police has initiated disciplinary action against a woman constable and suspended a sub-inspector of another police station for delaying filing of an FIR based on the complaint of a 23-year-old woman that she was gangraped in Thanjavur.
After criticism and protests that only four out of the six accused were arrested, police arrested one more and minor was held “The five accused men are in judicial custody and the minor boy has been sent to home for juveniles in conflict with law. A charge sheet will be filed soon,” said a senior police officer.
The officer said that the incident took place on August 12 when the woman was visiting her village in Pappanadu. On August 12, the woman was gang raped by three men and a minor boy inside a tin shed just 30 metres away from her house.
The officer said that the key accused, Kavidasan (25), had followed her on a two-wheeler and forcibly took her to the shed where five of his friends were there. While two men guarded the shed four others- Kavidasan, Divakar (27), Praveen (20) and a 17-year-old boy raped her, the survivor said in her complaint.
The survivor was quoted as saying that after the incident, she had to visit three police stations before an FIR was registered on August 13 morning.
{{/usCountry}}The survivor was quoted as saying that after the incident, she had to visit three police stations before an FIR was registered on August 13 morning.
{{/usCountry}}A sub-inspector Surya, who refused to take the survivor’s complaint at the Pappanadu police station – the first station the survivor went to – was suspended two days after the incident, the police officer quoted above said.
The survivor then went to an all women police station 14 km away at Pattukottai. However, the woman constable, Sudha, did not register the case and instead asked her to go to another police station in Orathanadu which they said is the right station jurisdictionally. “A woman constable here has been charged with a memo under Rule 3(b) of the Tamil Nadu Police Subordinate Service (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1955,” the officer quoted above said.
The all women police station had also asked her to visit a government hospital in Pattukkottai where she reportedly didn’t receive medical treatment but was asked to register a police complaint. Judicial Magistrate Court in Orathanadu has sent a notice and sought an explanation from the Pattukkottai GH.
The survivor finally reached the third police station in Orathanadu on the night of August 12 from where she was finally taken to a hospital for treatment and an FIR was registered on the following morning. “The arrests of four people including the minor were made immediately but yes there was a delay in registering an FIR,” an officer in the Orathanadu police station said. “Disciplinary action has been taken against errant personnel.”
Amid reports that the survivor could have lost her job in Chennai as she has not returned, a senior officer of the Tamil Nadu police said if found true they would help her get her job back.
After learning about the incident, the locals staged protests demanding justice. “We had two demands, one that all the accused should be arrested, which the police have done now,” said BJP state general secretary, Karuppu Muruganantham, who was part of the protest in Thanjavur.
“And, two, the main accused is a ganja (chewing tobacco) seller and this crime happened because he was under the influence of drugs. He has been previously arrested for supplying ganja but came out on bail. We want the police to crack down on drugs and book them all under the Goondas Act,” he said.
Senior police officers of the Villupuram range under which Thanjavur district falls have launched a sensitisation programme for the district’s police officers to efficiently deal with complaints of sexual crimes.