HYDERABAD: Cutting across party lines, members of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on Monday expressed deep outrage over the rape and murder of a veterinarian in Hyderabad and demanded strict laws that punish the guilty within a fixed time-frame.
They suggested changes in the existing legal framework.
Participating in the debate in the Lok Sabha, TPCC president and MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy blamed the sale of liquor in Telangana for the unfortunate incident and demanded that fast track court should pronounce quick verdict and hang the convicts.
Slamming the Telangana Home Minister Mahmood Ali for purportedly stating that the vet should have dialled 100 instead of calling her sister, Uttam Kumar Reddy also came down heavily on the State police for initially delaying to lodge a case.
He further alleged that due to the indifferent attitude of the local police, the family members were forced to visit two to three police stations before an FIR was registered.
“The policemen, in fact, insulted the family members by saying that their daughter must have eloped with somebody. They were made to go pillar to post before taking some action,” he said.
The Congress MP said if a case was registered in the first police station and the search started immediately, the vet could have been saved. “In Telangana, one of the causes for this type of incidents is the indiscriminate sale of liquor.
Despite Supreme Court’s ruling of 2016 which prohibits the sale of liquor on highways, liquor is being sold. In this particular incident, the accused were in an inebriated condition,” he said.
TRS member Kavitha Maloth said the Hyderabad incident has similarities with Nirbhaya case. She pointed out that in Nirbhaya case too, capital punishment was not implemented so far. “Our slogan should be Bharat Mahila Bachao instead of Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao,” Kavitha said.
TRS MP Nama Nageswara Rao demanded that the punishment should be delivered within 30 days by establishing fast track courts.
He said that the police nabbed the accused within hours of the incident by constituting ten teams. He, however, said that such incidents were being reported from Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and UP too.
BJP member Bandi Sanjay Kumar also suggested changes in the existing laws. He said that both the Centre and the State governments should work in tandem and punishment should be delivered instantly in such cases, Sanjay Kumar said.
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, TRS Parliamentary Party leader K Keshava Rao said: “We are discussing it today, not because it happened in Hyderabad alone.
Let us not make this mistake of attributing it to one State or city. Such incidents are happening in different parts of the country.
Also, let us not attribute it to one regime or the other. It is happening because of social weakness. There is a certain lacuna in our system. Can anyone think of having mercy on such people?”
Naidu asks Centre to review existing rape laws
Rangareddy: TDP national president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday demanded that the State government mete out stringent punishment to the accused persons in the Disha rape and murder case. Addressing the media at Shadnagar on his Kurnool tour, Naidu expressed his shock over the brutal incident. He said that it was high time for the Central government to review existing laws against rape and murder to prevent such incidents in future