Agencies/Lucknow
The embattled chief minister of Uttar Pradesh under fire for a series of rapes and hangings said yesterday that he has called for a more sensitive police force to tackle growing crimes against women.
The shocking gang-rape and lynching of two teenage girls and a string of other sex attacks in the northern state has sparked public outrage, with Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav coming under mounting pressure to resign for his handling of law and order.
In an interview, 40-year-old Yadav acknowledged that rapes were a growing problem in his state, often committed by relatives or neighbours.
“I firmly believe that the government must sincerely work to make sure such incidents do not happen. The government should be sensitive about these issues,” Yadav said at his plush residence, which overlooks a sprawling manicured garden.
Yadav became the youngest ever chief minister of Uttar Pradesh - home to more than 200mn people - two years ago promising to rid the area of endemic crime.
But the latest attacks on women have put him in the spotlight, with activists calling his government’s failure to protect women shameful.
When a reporter probed him about the lawlessness in Uttar Pradesh last month, Yadav retorted: “You haven’t faced any danger, right?”
He said the remark was taken out of context.
Yadav said he has chalked out a plan for a special police branch for crimes against women and training sessions to make officers more sensitive.
“A woman police officer will be heading the branch so that if any crime against any woman happens, it comes to the notice of the government and immediate investigation takes place,” said Yadav, dressed in his traditional starched white kurta.
“I have also told the high court that I want fast-track courts. I have specifically told the top cops of the state that they must be sensitive to these issues and that they have to get to the crime before the media, else who will help the victims? The police will!”
Late last month, two girls, aged 14 and 15, were gang-raped and hanged in their village in Uttar Pradesh. They were attacked after going into a field to relieve themselves at night because they did not have a toilet at home.
Last week a woman said she had been gang-raped by four officers at a police station in the state, and police said they were also investigating the death of a 19-year-old found, like the two girls, hanging from a tree.
Meanwhile, a 30-year-old woman was allegedly gang-raped by at least six people, including her estranged husband, and forced to drink urine in a village in Madhya Pradesh, police said.
The incident on Tuesday in Khandwa district of the central state state was reported to police on Friday, district superintendent Manoj Sharma said.
The victim, who has a 10-year-old son, said she had been separated from her husband for a couple of months due to a property dispute.
The husband reportedly called her to his farm to discuss the dispute, but when she arrived, a group of men beat her up, raped her and paraded her naked through the village, all in the presence of her son, she said.
When she asked for water, she said the men urinated on her face and forced her to drink it, police said.
She was locked up in a room and was rescued by her parents a couple of days later, after which they approached the police, Sharma said.
Police had detained some men for questioning, he said.
There were 4,335 rape cases in Madhya Pradesh in 2013 according to the state crime control board, an average of about 12 rapes per day.
