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Panel asks hard questions, govt grilled on past rapes
Vishwa Mohan & Raj Shekhar ,TNN | Dec 28, 2012, 01.21AM IST 
NEW DELHI: Amid the rising chorus to make rape an offence punishable by death in the wake of the Nirbhaya case, a parliamentary panel on Thursday grilled the government about the justification for commuting capital punishment for five rapists who murdered their victims to life.
Meanwhile, Delhi Police has decided to increase the number of women - mainly constables - on the ground instead of merely appending their numbers after Delhi police commissioner Neeraj Kumar met the parliamentary standing committee on home affairs which pointed out the lack of women in the lowest constabulary. At present, there are only 4,809 women officers in the lower division of the force with just one SHO.
Questioning the decisions, taken in the past couple of years, the panel asked the government to present a response at its next meeting on January 4. The death penalties of all five convicted rapists were commuted by former President Pratibha Patil during 2010-12 while responding to their respective mercy petitions and the panel has posed questions to law and home ministries. The panel asked officers to seek a response from the President House as well, if required. The standing committee headed by BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu also grilled city police commissioner Kumar over the December 16 gang rape incident and took note of the police role in mishandling the anti-rape protests. Union home secretary RK Singh was also summoned by the panel but could not make it due to illness.
Regarding the weak presence of women cops at the ground level, a top police source said, "We have been trying to induct more women in the force. But it is high time we put them on ground duty. Our new recruits are now being imparted commando training and there is no reason why they cannot take up outdoor assignments. We will depute them in areas where women frequent more as their visibility is a major demand." Police plan to recruit at least 20 per cent women starting from the next round of recruitments. It is believed that commissioner Kumar will again discuss this issue with the committee when he meets them next on January 4. The cops hope to increase the number of women in the force to 6,500 in the next two years. Despite regular presence of women officers in several cities across the country, Delhi Police is way behind. Of the 161 district police stations in Delhi, only Maurice Nagar police station in North campus has a woman station house officer. Women cops are not often given patrolling duties and are engaged in clerical or routine jobs, say sources. As of now, there are 72 women inspectors in the force but the only important posts they occupy are in the Women's Cell or Metro and railway station.
Raising the issue of Presidential pardon to rapists, standing committee members from both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha - irrespective of party affiliations - wondered how even the rapist-murderers got a reprieve with sentences commuted from death to life imprisonment. They are learnt to have referred to four cases involving five rapists while pitching for the explanation from officers who attended the meeting. These include cases of UP's Bantu who was convicted of raping and killing a five-year-old girl. His mercy petition was accepted by Patil on June, 2012.
Among others whose death sentences were commuted are Moloi Ram and Santosh Yadav of MP in February 2011, Satish of UP in May 2012 and Dharmender Singh in June 2010. All were convicted for rape-murders. The last such criminal hanged in the country was West Bengal's Dhananjoy Chatterjee in 2004.
Questioning Kumar over the gang rape incident, the Committee also pointed to deficiencies like large vacancies at different levels, unnecessary deployment of security personnel to protect VIPs and lack of vehicles to patrol streets.
Kumar is learnt to have informed the panel about the sequence of events of the gang rape incident and said the police control room vans reacted "promptly" after receiving the phone call about the crime. He also told the committee that quick police response helped nab all the six accused. During Kumar's deposition, Congress MP from east Delhi Sandeep Dikshit, who had recently demanded the resignation of Kumar, is understood to have said there was a disconnect between officers and those on the ground.......................http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDEyLzEyLzI4I0FyMDEyMDE=&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom
Questioning Kumar over the gang rape incident, the Committee also pointed to deficiencies like large vacancies at different levels, unnecessary deployment of security personnel to protect VIPs and lack of vehicles to patrol streets.
Kumar is learnt to have informed the panel about the sequence of events of the gang rape incident and said the police control room vans reacted "promptly" after receiving the phone call about the crime. He also told the committee that quick police response helped nab all the six accused. During Kumar's deposition, Congress MP from east Delhi Sandeep Dikshit, who had recently demanded the resignation of Kumar, is understood to have said there was a disconnect between officers and those on the ground.......................http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDEyLzEyLzI4I0FyMDEyMDE=&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom
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