Crime against women, minors not new in MP

Two incidents of sexual assault in the last 15 days in Indore has once again put a stamp on reports that Indore is the most unsafe city for the fairer sex in Madhya Pradesh.

Two incidents of sexual assault in last 15 days in Indore has once again put a stamp on the reports that Indore is the most unsafe city for the fairer sex in Madhya Pradesh.

As per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) Crime in India 2013, not only in 2013 but in 2012, Indore had shown the worst record with 922 cases of crime against women and 270 cases of child rapes in year 2012.

On November 27, a school van driver allegedly attempted to molest a four-year-old girl in the van near Bhooteshwar temple. Cases of rapes and child abuse are not new in Indore.

The two cases also reminded the residents of a horrifying rape and murder of four-year-old girl, two years back.

The two incidents have put the police in a tizzy.

Senior police officers believe that such type of crimes would not stop till a proper verification mechanism of drivers are in place. “The police verification of the school driver or cab is also not very “credible”. Police hardly go for physical verification on the address, which a driver provides to the company. The concerned police station only checks the crime records. But a man with criminal background never provides his correct address. There should be law that an Aadhar card or voter ID card should be provided and it should be verified physically to the police,” said an ASP level officer posted in Indore.

“It is duty of the school administration and the parents as well to verify driver school van and this should be taken seriously. We will issue an advisory directives to the school but as far as law is concerned, the verification is not in the ambit of police,” said SP Abid Khan.

DIG Rakesh Gupta also said that even after making repeated attempts to provide us each and every detail of the person employed by any organisation, most of the schools or organisation are not taking it seriously. “It is duty of school administration to verify the records of the school driver with us but most of them are apathetic,” added the DIG.

A senior police officer, preferring anonymity said, “We can contain these sort of crime and that too in Indore because the city has a centralised system of crime records. We can call the details of each and every school van driver and whosoever has some criminal records could be checked.”

Responding to suggestion made by a senior police official, the DIG said that, “I will surely look into this matter and soon something positive will come out.”