VISAKHAPATNAM: The schedule for the Vakapalli rape case is likely to be decided on Monday. For the first time, special public prosecutor Sunkara Rajendra Prasad, appointed by the government and the defence counsel, will be attending the court in Visakhapatnam. It may be recalled that after almost a decade, the Supreme Court last year ordered that the case be heard by a special court constituted to handle SC, ST Atrocities Act in Visakhapatnam.
Rajendra Prasad was appointed after the AP High Court accepted the plea of the rape victims of Vakapalli to appoint a public prosecutor of their choice, for which they had filed the petition. Sources said that if the schedule is decided on Monday, the trial would begin soon.
On August 20, 2007, 11 tribal women of Vakapalli village in Nurmati panchayat of G Madugula mandal in the agency region of Visakhapatnam district, were allegedly gangraped by the Greyhounds personnel, the elite anti-Naxal force of Andhra Pradesh. As per the victims in the case, 21 Greyhounds personnel during their routine combing operation in the village indiscriminately raped the women at gunpoint, when their menfolk were away at the agricultural fields.