VISAKHAPATNAM: In the Vakapalli case, Special Sessions Judge in the Special Court for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act cases OV Nageswar Rao on Tuesday directed Armed Reserve Police (ARP) Inspector and the Station House Officer (SHO), Paderu police station to produce the duty registers.
The judge gave the directive as Special Public Prosecutor SR Prasad sought the registers maintained by the ARP and the Paderu police stations regarding the allocation of duties and arms to the special party policemen, involved in the alleged rape of the 11 tribal women of Vakapalli.
According to the Special Public Prosecutor, this evidence will show movement of the accused policemen on the day of the rapes.
During the past three hearings, the ARP Inspector and the SHO Paderu have been reporting to the court that the relevant registers are not traced and during Tuesday’s hearing, the Inspector produced only the arms issue register to the court. The Special Public Prosecutor argued the police are deliberately delaying the production of registers. He said the police standing orders mandates the maintenance of these registers and that they cannot be destroyed.
The Special Judge directed both the ARP Inspector and the SHO Paderu to trace the registers by January 2 next, the next date of hearing. The Judge added they should double their efforts to trace the registers and submit them to the court.
On August 20, 2007, 11 Adivasi women, belonging to Kondh tribe of Vakapalli hamlet in Nurmati Panchayat of Vizag Agency were allegedly gang-raped by the Greyhounds personnel, an elite anti-Naxal force. Of the 11 victims, two died subsequently. Following Supreme Court orders in 2017, the SC/ST Special Court at Vizag began hearing the case.