India: fact-finding team of WHRDs detained for seeking information on alleged rape case
Event- Country
- India
- Initial Date
- Aug 17, 2021
- Event Description
Background of the Incident:
A lab technician named Uma Maheswar at Gandhi Hospital at Mahbubnagar Telangana, allegedly raped two sisters, aged 38 and 40, from Mahabubnagar district and confined one of them to a room for four days. The victims had accompanied the patient. While the patient was admitted to the hospital on August 5, 2021, and discharged on August 11, 2021, the two women who accompanied him went missing. After the patient was discharged, his son returned to the Gandhi Hospital in search of his mother and aunt (victims). On August 15, 2021, the son received communication that his aunt was found in a secluded place in the hospital premises in an unconscious state lying naked with visible abuse marks on her body. When she regained her consciousness, she shared her ordeal of sexual abuse and rape with her family members. The aunt told the family that while she was at the hospital, she lost her way and asked Uma Maheswar, a lab technician, for help. Taking advantage of this, he directed her into a room, where he drugged her and raped her repeatedly on multiple occasions and raped her elder sister who is still missing. On August 15, 2021, the victims approached the Mahabubnagar police station, but the police didn’t register the complaint because they said it was not within their jurisdiction. They were then to a different police station for registering the complaint and registered the complaint at Chilakaluguda police station.
Details of the Incident:
On August 17, 2021, an all-women activist’s fact-finding team with members belonging to various women rights organisations like All India Democratic Womens Association (AIDWA)- Ms. Mallu Lakshmi, WT-JAC V (Ms. V. Sandhya), POW, Ms. B. Jyoti (CMS), Ms. Krishnakumari (NFIW) and Ms. Vijaya Bhandaru (Progressive Writers Association) went to enquire about the report regarding the rape of two sisters at the Gandhi Hospital. However, they were not allowed inside the hospital and one of the HRDs on Facebook Live was stopped by the police. They were arbitrarily detained at the Lalguda Police station by the police which was already present there. Later in the evening they were released and were allowed to meet the hospital superintendent and were allowed to do the fact finding. We believe that this is an example of the misuse of power by police officials. Complete ignorance of law was displayed by the police officials in turning away the woman victim in registering the FIR from the Mahabubnagar police station. According to law, a Zero FIR can be filed in any police station regardless of the place of incident or jurisdiction. The provision of Zero FIR came up as recommendation in Justice Verma Committee Report in the new Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013. The concept of Zero FIR is a free jurisdiction FIR, brought up in order to avoid the delay in filing the crime and to avoid wastage of time that adversely impacts the victim. According to Clause (e) of Section 460 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), if at the time of initiation of FIR, it looks evident that the crime was committed outside the jurisdiction of the concerned police station, then the police must be appropriately ordered to register a Zero FIR, and ensure that the FIR is transferred to the jurisdictional police station. If there is a failure in compiling with the instruction of FIR registration on acknowledgement of information about the offence, it will invite prosecution of the police officer under section 166A which provides a rigorous imprisonment of six months be extended to two years. This evasion of responsibility may invite the departmental action for the police officer. Furthermore, the detention and harassment of women activists who were undertaking a fact-finding was completely unwarranted. In violation of the DK Basu guidelines, the WHRDs were not given any reason for their detention, nor were they given any detention memo as per the guidelines.
- Impact of Event
- 5
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Restrictions on Movement
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement
- Right to information
- Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- NGO staff
- WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
Case shared by a FORUM-ASIA member
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 16.743559019352965
Longitude: 77.99036822250622
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 17 August 2021, a group of at least 5 WHRDs from different women's rights NGOs was temporarily detained by the police when visiting a hospital to seek information on an alleged rape occurred in Mahabubnagar, India.