Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...
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| Crime against women |
Growing graph of crime against women and shocking instances of molestation and sexual assault reveals how perverts are emboldened to indulge in such lecherous acts
By Dheeraj Fartode
Behind serene atmosphere of the Orange city, now being looked on as a prospective growth centre, the crime statistics seem to reveal a sinister and dark side. The new year, 2013, may have began on ominous note because in first three months there is a whopping 87 per cent rise in crime against women in second capital of Maharashtra.
The graph showing crime against women is heading Northwards which should be matter of concern for one and all who loves Nagpur, more famous for its quite and cosmopolitan culture. But police statistics, if taken at its face value, indicates that, cases of molestation and rape have zoomed upwards. This is more shocking when one peeps deep into crime figures and finds that in bygone year 2012 the crime against women appeared to be downslide. Hence the sudden upsurge seems shocking.
As per the data collated from city police, 71 cases of sexual assault on women were reported in the first quarter of the year.
According to Additional Commissioner of Police (Retd.) Babasaheb Kangale, on one hand one can say that fear of law is on wane among the criminals. For this faster trials and enhancement in punishment in crime against women can rectify the situation to a greater extent.
But if studied deeply, it seems the reporting of crime against women and its registration has increased. Now, every crime against women is registered without preliminary inquiry. Hence this gets reflected in ballooning figures of criminal assaults on woman in particular. Before jumping to any conclusions one should go deeper into these issues, Kangale opined.
Social activist Dr Seema Sakhre, however, said, the rise in cases against crime means one needs to introspect and admit that Nagpur too is following in footsteps of big bad metropolitan cities. Law enforcement agencies have utterly failed to establish rule of law and the respect for law is diminishing in society. Accused are outraging modesty of teenagers at will and the fact they are let out easily for want of evidence or faulty chargesheets seems to have emboldened them. She also castigated the police force saying, the men in uniform are not at all sensitive about modesty of women.
The Hitavada tried to get a line from Commissioner of Police K K Pathak on the matter. However repeated attempts failed to materialise as he preferred to remain silent on the matter.
Cases registered under sections 354 and 376 of IPC in Nagpur
2011 2012 2013
Sec 354 27 21 51
Sec 376 13 17 20
Total 40 38 71
(Above data is between January and March)
(Sec 354 of IPC for molestation and Sec 376 for rape)
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