MARGAO: “2019 has been a ghastly year for Indian women where we have practically gone back to 2012 when the horrifying Nirbhaya case occurred which brought about some good laws but unfortunately there is no drop in crime against women because the perverted “mind set” of the criminal has not changed” social activist Auda Viegas has said.
“What is happening now is that the culprit is burning the rape victim and thus destroying evidence against him,” she said pointing out that there have been cases this year when the rape victim has been burnt alive.
She admitted that rape can result in a death sentence at present but lamented that police officers do not have the luxury of investigating the case to its logical conclusion. “They have to do bandobast duty in between and attend to other cases too,” she said.
However, she said police officials particularly in South Goa have done some good work and cracked some difficult cases. “But what is the point; Prabod Shirwaikar got a conviction of 25 years for a rapist and today he is managing traffic instead of investigating other criminal cases,” she said.
Viegas also noted the increasing number of cyber crimes and lamented that the Goa administration does not have the wherewithal to probe and penalise those involved in these cases as their servers are not based in India.
“I also cannot understand how women can fall to prey to requests from their cyber friendly friends to send their nude pictures which are then made viral and the woman concerned complains then when actually it was she who had sent the objectionable picture in the first place,” she said.
She said there was a strong need to have a counseling session for children, their parents and the police to educate young girls to protect themselves from wolves in sheep’s clothing.
