“No Media, No Police, No Outsiders”

• Even as Hyderabad continues to hold protests following the rape and murder of a woman on Thursday, the residential colony of the victim is turning away politicians dropping by, reports news agency PTI. A woman asked why Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had so far not reacted; another asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not yet tweeted on the incident. Former CPI(M) MLA J Ranga Reddy and his party workers were asked by the residents to go back. The residents locked the gates to the colony and held placards that read: “No Media, No Police, No Outsiders – No sympathy, only action, justice.”
• The city of Hyderabad has been on the edge since the gruesome incident on Thursday night. A 25-year-old veterinary doctor working at a state-run hospital was raped and killed on Thursday night after she was waylaid with deflated tyres of her scooter. The police have since arrested four, all truck drivers, and on Saturday they were sent to judicial custody for 14 days. The police say one of them had punctured the tyre.
• The incident and the protests that followed are drawing parallels to the 2012 Delhi rape case that sparked nationwide protests and resulted in amendments to criminal law to impose stricter punishment for sexual harassment.
• Yet despite stricter laws and greater attention on the topic in media, India remains unsafe for women — as per a survey by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, it is most unsafe in the world. Even official data do not paint a pretty picture. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 32559 rape cases were reported in 2017.

What’s more chilling? As per NCRB, in nearly 93% cases of rape, the culprits were known to the victim.