Published Jan 02, 2024 | 12:17 PM ⚊ Updated Jan 02, 2024 | 3:07 PM
11 held for the raping a minor girl in Visakhapatnam, 2 more on the run.
In a horrific incident that has sent shockwaves across Andhra Pradesh, a 17-year-old girl, a resident of Visakhapatnam, was allegedly raped by 13 men over a week in two different cities.
According to the police, the minor girl hails from Odisha, and her family came to Visakhapatnam around a year ago for work. Her father works as a watchman in an apartment in Visakhapatnam, while the minor girl works as a maid.
Visakhapatnam Disha ACP Ch Vivekananda, speaking to South First, stated that on 17 December, the girl left home along with her boyfriend and she was found by the police only on 25 December in Odisha.
“On the pretext of her birthday on 17 December, her boyfriend, a migrant labourer from Jharkhand, took her to Odisha, where he raped her. A friend of her boyfriend also assaulted her,” the ACP said.
Later, she came back to Visakhapatnam with mental trauma and went to RK Beach in the port city to end her life, “where she was allegedly ‘lured’ and raped by eight to nine photographers,” the ACP added.
A local man who takes photographs of tourists entered into a conversation with her and then “took her to a lodge and raped her. He also took her to another room with eight to nine photographers who raped her for three days from 20-22 December,” the ACP stated.
“The girl managed to escape from their (photographer and friends) clutches and left the city, and was found in Odisha on 25 December. A total of 11 people have been arrested so far and are going to be produced in court for remand today. Two others from Jharkhand are on the run and a team has been sent there to arrest them,” the ACP added.
The ACP said that the police have altered the missing persons case into a rape case under Section 376 (punishment for sexual assault) of the Indian Penal Code and added sections from the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The ACP said that all the photographers in the case are from Andhra Pradesh.
The incident has also evoked angry reactions from political corners with Opposition parties accusing the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP government of failing to provide security to women in Andhra Pradesh.
Former chief minister of the state and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu took to his social media pages to condemn the incident and question the YSRCP government.
My head hangs in shame, and my heart aches at this heinous crime in Vizag. Criminals continue to hurt our daughters and sisters without fearing the law because they know there is no law and order in a YSRCP-ruled Andhra Pradesh. Forget women empowerment, YS Jagan’s vision seems…
— N Chandrababu Naidu (@ncbn) January 1, 2024
Reacting sharply to Naidu’s post on social media, the YSRCP said in a counter-tweet that his “sudden concern for women’s safety is not only hypocritical but very antagonising.”
Citing a number of incidents that occurred during Naidu’s regime, the ruling party added that the YS Jagan government, in just 4 years, “has done more for women than what you’ve done in your entire 40-year career.”
Mr. Mosagadu Babu @ncbn, your sudden concern for women's safety is not only hypocritical but very antagonising.
Did you conveniently forget the crimes against women that happened during your regime like Chintamaneni Prabhakar's assault on a lady MRO, Vinod Jain's heinous… https://t.co/0Z4aq5Z81S
— YSR Congress Party (@YSRCParty) January 2, 2024
