Villagers shell-shocked over police apathy

Karimnagar: An eerie of silence prevails in this tiny Challur village of Veenavanka mandal with the womenfolk in general and girls in particular still traumatised after the heinous gang-rape of a Dalit girl and filming of the crime by the accused.

With the media highlighting the plight of the girl, the villagers are a worried lot with the social stigma caused to their village.

With a stream of politicians and mediapersons visiting the village and inquiring about the incident, the villagers, mostly women, are confining themselves to their houses. Villages are yet to come out of the shock and trauma caused to the girl, whose dream was to become a policewoman by undergoing pre-constable recruitment training conducted by the police. The circulation of the video clipping through mobile phones still haunts the villagers.

“People have lost confidence in the police department as they failed to prevent the crime in spite of the victim’s friend making a panic call when the gruesome incident took place on February 10,”complained a close relative of the rape victim. She said that the victim wanted to commit suicide after the incident as the police did not respond to the panic call. “But we instilled confidence in her, and with the support of villagers, we could catch all the three accused, and handed them over to the police after giving them a sound thrashing,” she said, and flayed the police machinery for its lethargy.

The victim’s father wailed saying how can he lead his family with three other girl children after undergoing so much of mental agony. Urging the government to do justice to them, he called upon the police officials to punish the accused so that it can be a lesson to others. “If not, please hand over the culprits to us. Either we will kill them or die in their hands if we are unable to kill them,” he cried.

Source: The Hindu