KOCHI: It was just like any other day for Ernakulam range Inspector General R Sreelekha when she set out on her regular morning walk from her residence in Kadavanthra on Friday around 6 am.
But as she approached the Kathrikadavu over-bridge, she noticed a stranger moving in a suspicious manner on a bicycle a little away. In lightening speed she turned around to nab him. But sensing danger, the person immediately fled the scene.
“I had a gut feeling when I saw the person. There was something fishy about his movements. I don’t know what he was up to. But I decided to nab him and question him. But he fled the scene,” Sreelekha told ‘expresso’. “Though the city is quite safe for women with no major crimes like rape or kidnapping being reported in the last couple of months, there are certain antisocial elements who misbehave with women and resort to eve teasing,” she said.
Sreelekha said that she had decided to appoint special police squads in mufti to roam around the streets and nab those who resort to eve teasing. “We have to do something urgently. Local people should come forward to help the police to identify trouble makers,” she said. ‘expresso’ had earlier published a report that the incidence of molestation and sexual harassment against women in Kochi was high when compared to major cities like Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai and Patna.
The report, which referred to the data of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), pointed out that molestation and sexual harassment against women were higher in Kochi compared to other major cities.
While the percentage of rape and dowry deaths in Kochi was 1.2 and 0.1, it was 2.3 and 2.8 in Chennai, 23.8 and 15.2 in Delhi and 10.7 and 2.2 in Mumbai. ‘expresso’, after evincing opinion from various people, had also highlighted the need for visible policing in the city.