Himachal PRADESH DGP flags rise in Bizarre sexual offences
SHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh police have raised its concerns to the state government over usual rise in the sexual offences, including those against minors and elderly women, involving their own close relatives and family members.
The incidents, being reported to the police, during past one month –in unlock 1.0, have particularly alarmed the police agency. Such incidents are happening within the houses and in the families. Some of such cases which Director General of Police Sanjay Kundu have mentioned to state's Chief secretary Anil Khachi, raise multiple questions, particularly psychological disorders.
“An elderly woman in Sirmaur was raped by a teenager finding her alone at home. Father-in-law took advantage of loneliness of his daughter-inlaw and raped her. Step-brother raping a minor sister and making her pregnant. And, a youth commits bestiality in Mandi district,” he revealed some bizarre cases reported to the police during past few days . The list of such cases sends any normal person to shock. It could be result of growing sick mentalities and psychological problems among offenders during past some months or during the Covid lockdown conditions.
The worst was yet to come to the notice of the police when last week a woman complained against her husband having raped their minor daughter, who has become pregnant. In Sirmaur itself, man raped his mother-in-law. More shocks to add was case of grand-father raping his grand-daughter in Chopal area of Shimla district. “There is something terrible wrong with mental state of sexual offenders, who seems to have really gone berserk. It's an issue that the police feel should be addressed both by the Social Justice and Empowerment department, besides Health department,” Kundu told the Millennium Post.
Other day, during a video conference with Union cabinet secretary, Chief Secretary Anil Khachi also flagged the issue seeking an advise to deal with the problem.
In his letter to Additional Chief Secretary, Social Justice and empowerment, the DGP– who took the charge only recently, wrote “There can't be any doubt that such offences show the sick mentality of the offenders which in turn creates an atmosphere of fear and insecurity among the children and women”.
He suggested for launching an awareness drive, especially to ensure a sense of safety and protection against the women and children.
“They need to be made aware about impending risks to their modesty from friends, relatives and others by detecting early warning signals for advances or gestures made by the known and unknown males,” Kundu suggested.
The DGP informed that the police will undertake sexual offenders' profiling and crime mapping to stop such incidents, before the offenders commit such crimes against women and children.
Kundu indicated introducing "Predictive policing"–a concept which has so far been adoted at New York city and involves usage of mathematical, predictive analytics, and other analytical techniques in law enforcement to identify potential criminal activity.