PUNE: State BJP vice-president Chitra Wagh on Wednesday said the city police’s promptness in arresting all 14 suspects in the recent gang-rape of a minor was laudable, but they did not show the same agility in arresting the culprits behind abetting a 22-year-old woman’s death by suicide earlier this year.
The woman had jumped off a building in an area under the Wanowrie police jurisdiction on February 7. A state cabinet minister, whose name had surfaced in the case, had to resign amid a strident campaign by state BJP leaders led by former CM Devendra Fadnavis.
“We will continue to fight till we provide justice to the suicide victim’s family. We have filed a writ petition in the Bombay HC,” Wagh told reporters after meeting Pune police commissioner Amitabh Gupta and joint commissioner Ravindra Shisve in relation to the gang-rape case. “The gang-rape is shameful and shows a growing sense of perversion among the criminals,” she said.
Wagh called for apt reforms in the justice delivery system to see that all pending cases of atrocities against women were expedited at the earliest. She said, “An expert committee should be set up to suggest such reforms and provisions to see that accused in such cases do not get bail.”
She said, “The state government needs to change its attitude while dealing in cases relating to women. There is a dire need to sensitise people coming from lower strata of society, like autorickshaw drivers, to respect women and deter them from committing crime.”
Wagh also praised the Chandigarh railway police for rescuing the girl. She said the Maharashtra police should intensify patrolling at railway stations and bus terminus to ensure safety of women.
