NEW DELHI: A 16-year-old girl in South Delhi’s Mehrauli area was dragged to a park and raped by two youths on July 6. The victim was returning home via an unlit lane after her tuition classes at around 7.30 pm when the accused and his friend raped her.
Every day, there are incidents of molestation, rape, assault and other forms of violence against women. Despite tall promises by lawmakers and enforcement agencies, the national capital witnesses six rapes and 13 molestation cases every day. Till July 12, as many as 1,076 rape and 2,574 molestation incidents were reported in the city. Shockingly, most of them occurred in posh south Delhi areas.
Last Monday, Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and Delhi Police’s top brass—including Commissioner B S Bassi—held a crime review meeting and found that most of the incidents related to crime against women were reported from south Delhi.
After analysing crime figures of 170 police stations, they concluded that the maximum rape and molestation incidents occurred in Mehrauli, Vasant Vihar, Govindpuri and Neb Sarai. While 108 molestation and 20 rape cases took place in Mehrauli, the Vasant Vihar police registered 90 molestation and 20 rape cases.
Thirty-seven rape cases were reported from Govindpuri and Malviya Nagar areas, and 191 molestation cases were from Bindapur, Dabri, Neb Sarai and Malviya Nagar areas. On May 17, a 25-year-old woman was abducted from south Delhi’s Defence Colony and gang-raped by four men in a car. They took her to a flat in Mehrauli and took turns to rape her. The victim works for an event management company.
Most of the crimes related to women in the capital have been reported from the posh south Delhi areas. A 14-year-old girl from Manipur was allegedly confined, assaulted and raped by an 18-year-old boy in Vasant Vihar. The minor girl was staying with her aunt and when she went to a pharmacy store nearby, she was followed, gagged and dragged to an isolated area and then raped.
Police blame frequent interference from AAP legislators and workers at police stations for demoralising the force.
On increase in rape cases, Special Commissioner of Police Deepak Mishra said, “The process of providing justice to a victim of a cognizable crime cannot begin unless an FIR is registered upon complaint.”
He also said they have taken various measures pertaining to women’s safety. These include increasing the number of call-takers on 100 and 1091, creation of 24x7 women helpdesks at all police stations, interaction with students and teachers of girls’ colleges and schools. Introducing self-defence training programmes, deploying PCR vans, motorcycles and pickets to cover vulnerable locations are also key features. “As long as every woman on Delhi’s streets does not feel fully safe, our task is incomplete,” Mishra said.
Though Delhi Police claim to solve 73.23 per cent of rape cases and 55.28 per cent of molestation cases, rape incidents have seen a rise of 0.28 per cent and molestation cases by 18.84 per cent, compared to last year’s figures. The force claims that they have solved 738 rape cases and 1,325 cases.
While 408 rape cases were solved within one week of being committed, 100 cases were solved in the second week, and 58 rape and 127 molestation cases were solved in the fourth week.
Police are yet to solve around 300 rape cases and around 1,000 molestation cases. The police analysed places where rape and molestation incidents occurred.
Top officers say that 83.33 per cent and 53.37 per cent of rape and molestation cases, respectively, registered till last week took place inside homes, while 3.57 per cent of rapes and 0.63 per cent of molestations occurred in hotels and restaurants. And, 1.78 per cent of the rape cases and 1.8 per cent of the molestation cases happened in vehicles; 1.39 per cent of the rape and 1.17 per cent of molestation cases took place in parks. Only 0.10 per cent rape cases and 26.95 per cent molestation cases occurred on roads.
The maximum number of sexual offenders (426) arrested this year were aged between 18 and 25 years while 289 were aged between 25 and 35. Of them, 518 belong to the economically weaker sections of society and 322 accused are from a middle-class background.
Two of the accused are from the elite section of society.