AP Women's Body Wants Charges Against Onlookers in Vizag Rape Case

Following the rape of a poor woman on the streets of Vishakhapatnam (Vizag), the Andhra Pradesh Women’s Commission on Wednesday lashed out at the onlookers. The women’s commission wants charges against the spectators and those who videotaped the awful crime. It is reported that a crowd had gathered and a few men also recorded the criminal act, while no one tried to stop the perpetrator from raping the woman in broad daylight.

Commission Chairperson Nannapaneni Rajakumari spoke on the issue. She said that the legal system should also punish those who watched the crime in broad daylight and walked on. Rajakumari asserted that there is no difference between the person who committed the crime and the mute spectators. She urged the police to file charges against the onlookers by using CCTV footage to identify them.

“We will ensure that the accused receives stringent punishment for the act and also request Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu to offer compensation ranging between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh to the victim”

Police have identified an auto driver in this case who was watching the rape and recorded it too on his phone.

“We will ensure that the accused receives stringent punishment for the act and also request Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu to offer compensation ranging between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh to the victim,” she added, Indian Express reports.

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She has also promised medical care and shelter to the victim. “This case should lead to awareness so that such incidents do not happen again,” she told reporters in New Delhi.

Rajakumari has also written to the Prime Minister to constitute a separate censor board for television serials.

“In the films of the good old days, the industry portrayed women as an embodiment of endurance. But now they portray women negatively in TV serials. I request the Prime Minister to take the necessary steps in constituting a censor board for TV serials,” she said in the letter, which she also sent to Union Minister Smriti Irani.

Earlier on Sunday, a drunk man allegedly raped a 40-year-old near a busy road in Vishakhapatnam. The auto-rickshaw driver’s footage shows many mute spectators of the heinous act and quite a few people recording it too.

The auto driver then called the police, said Visakhapatnam’s Assistant Commissioner of Police (East) A Narasimha Murthy. The ACP also said that the police have detained the auto-driver.

Picture credit- Democratz News