The incident of kidnapping and rape of a girl by a canteen owner for 17 long months has sent shockwaves and dismay across Hyderabad and the protests against the incident have now spread from the streets to the social media.
The shocking incident came to light when the 20-year-old girl managed to escape from the clutches of her tormentor and returned home to her parents.
On the complaint of the girl, Santoshnagar police station in Hyderabad has filed a case against Satyaprakash Singh, the owner of a canteen at TRR College and arrested him.
“We have filed a case and an impartial and prompt investigation has been taken up,” said Tarun Joshi, Deputy Commissioner of South Zone. He said that the statement of the girl will be recorded before the Magistrate.
With the victim and the perpetrator of the crime belonging to different communities, the issue has become even more sensitive and the police was not allowing any more public demonstrations. A group of youth who had demonstrated outside Santoshnagar Police station was taken into custody.
Hyderabad city Police Commissioner Anurag Sharma said that the case will be dealt with under the more strict new Act. This Act, an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code, was passed by Parliament after the shocking incident of December 16 gang-rape in New Delhi. A court in Delhi has sentenced to death the four accused of the case under this Act.
Taking a serious note of the case, Andhra Pradesh State Human Rights Commission has also issued notices to the Director General of Police Dinesh Reddy and the revenue officials to take necessary action. The commission, on a representation by the acting president of Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT) Amjadullah Khan Khalid, asked the DGP to submit his report by October 7 and directed the Collector of Hyderabad to provide financial aid to the girl.
The girl had gone missing on April 3, 2012 from her polytechnic college and all efforts by her family to trace her had failed. Now the girl revealed that on that day, Satyaprakash Singh mixed something in her food and after she fell unconscious he took her to a flat at an unknown place where she was confined, chained with a belt, tortured and raped repeatedly.
The girl told in her complaint that though she used to scream and cry for help, nobody came to her help. Satyaprakash Singh used to beat her up brutally and rape her. After one month, apparently under the pressure of the house owner, he moved her to another place in the dead of the night promising that he will release her.
“After a drive of an hour he again took me forcibly to another flat at Meerpet, Bala Nagar, Gayatri Nagar and in spite of my protest and cry, he locked me with help of an woman who I can identify,” the girl said in her complaint.