With at least two incidents of sexual exploitation of the minors being reported from Nainital district over the past three days, the people here are outraged, venting their anger against the police not doing enough to stop their recurrence. However, what is alarming is the fact that as per the statistics of such crimes against the minors and also against the women over the past six months reported from lalkuan area of the district, the substance abusers are involved in most of them.
As per the report received from the police department, the minors are falling prey to the wanton lasciviousness of the substance abusers.
In October 2016, a 13- year -old girl had been allegedly abducted and then sexually exploited by a driver from Motahaldu, the same locality the minor was from. On November 15, 2016, a 50-year-old had allegedly attempted to molest a three- year- old girl in Nagina Colony. On December 2, 2016, 12-year- old girl had been allegedly sexually exploited by a person identified as Mahipal living in Haldu Chaur area. On December 12, 2016, a woman aged around 80 had been allegedly sexually exploited by a 25- year- old Deeraj from Bindukhatta, resulting in her death. On April 14, 2017, a 27- year- old Suresh had allegedly sexually exploited a eight- year –old- girl from Verma Colony. More recently, a five- year- old girl had been allegedly molested by the storekeeper of a school located in lalkuan area of the district.
What is striking is that the accused of all these cases are the substance abusers. Police say that they were addicted to smack, hashish or liquors. Under the influence of the substances, they are inclined to first abduct the minors and then to molest them, say the police probing such cases. “In some cases, the accused were known to the minors they subjected to sexual exploitation,” said one of such police officers dealing with such cases.
Expressing grave concern over the vulnerability of the minors to the lust of the drug addicts, former Uttarakhand Women Commission vice chairperson Amita lohani said that the criminals involved in such heinous crimes should be given exemplary punishment to make it act as a deterrent. “We would soon meet the state chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat to urge him to come down heavily on such crimes by giving more teeth to the existing acts,” she said.