Police to patrol ‘unsafe’ areas after BPO staffer’s gangrape

NEW DELHI - Two days after a northeastern woman working in a BPO was abducted and gangraped in the capital, Delhi Police Friday agreed to the demand of a northeast delegation that special patrolling will be done in “unsafe” areas of the city.

Madhu Chandra, spokesperson of the Northeast Support Centre and Helpline, who led a delegation of activists and lawyers and met a top Delhi Police official Friday, said: “The Delhi Police commissioner directed the Joint Commissioner of Police (southern range), Amulya Patnaik, to meet us today and discuss the matter of safety of the northeastern community in Delhi, especially the women.”

“He assured us that there will be night patrolling in the unsafe areas of the city. That was one of our primary demands. We also gave him a list of the places in Delhi which we think are unsafe since a lot of crimes against northeastern people and otherwise are reported from there,” Chandra told IANS.

Among the areas identified by the Northeast Support Centre as unsafe are Munirka, Mahipalpur, Moti Bagh, Mohammadpur, Nanakpura, New Friends Colony and Delhi University campus.

“We will nevertheless visit those areas ourselves to see if the patrolling is being done. You know, we keep getting assurances and promises, but no good comes out of it. Even last year Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and others promised a helpline for the northeastern people here, but it has not yet been done,” Chandra said.

The delegation also asked the police to book the BPO company where the 30-year-old victim used to work in Gurgaon. This step, they said, will serve as an example for all other companies in making safety a priority, especially for their female workforce.

“But he (Patnaik) was not very sure on that. He said that he will look into it,” Chandra said.

Women and Child Development minister Krishna Tirath Thursday said she will write to the Delhi Police commissioner and the union home minister to gender sensitise the police to curb such crimes in the city.

She also said that her ministry will write to the BPOs to issue strict guidelines for the safety of women employees. A hostel for women of the northeast will be inaugurated in south Delhi by the minister Dec 27.

Chandra said the victim, who is being taken care of by the Mizoram Welfare Association, is coping with the trauma with “steely grit”. She is also being counselled.

The victim was abducted by five men from Dhaula Kuan in south Delhi after she was dropped near her home by her office cab late at night. She was then gangraped in a moving tempo goods carrier early Wednesday.

The men drove all the way to Mangolpuri in northwest Delhi and dumped her there. A case has been registered at the Dhaula Kuan police station and investigations are going on in the matter.