KOCHI: Following the sensational rape and brutal toruture of a woman in an apartment for over a month, the police have decided to launch a special drive to nab absconders in cases of violence against women in Kochi. Speaking to TNIE, City Police Commissioner C Nagaraju said after the apartment rape case came to light, several women approached the police with complaints of violence they had faced.
In the apartment rape case, police were blamed for failing to arrest accused Martin Joseph for more than a month after the victim lodged a complaint. Finally, the police nabbed him from Thrissur in a planned operation on Thursday. “One good thing is that several women have come forward to lodge complaints on the violence they had faced from their partners. In the last two-three days, we received several such complaints in Kochi. We will carry out investigation and take action against the offenders as fast as possible,” Nagaraju said.
The city commissioner will call a review meeting and evaluate the progress of investigation in cases registered under Section 376 of IPC (rape) in all police stations in the city. “In incidents in which FIRs have already been registered, we will launch a special drive soon. Priority will be given to cases registered under Section 376 in which violence is also reported. The persons who have allegedly been involved in such cases and have absconded will be tracked down. We are in the process of collecting details about the fugitives,” he said.
The Special Branch, the intelligence wing of Kerala Police, is also collecting information from police stations in which the accused in rape cases are yet to be arrested. “Our officials attached to each police station have been given the direction to collect the details of persons involved in such cases. Useful inputs will be given to the local police to help them track down the culprits,” an official said.
As per the recent police data, 3,711 cases of crimes against women were reported in the state in the first quarter of 2021. These include 627 rape and 1,038 molestation cases and 863 cases of cruelty by husband and relatives till March this year. In the entire 2020, 12,659 cases of crimes against women were reported including 1,807 rape cases.