A New Direction

The Jaganmohan Reddy government makes a push for speedy justice in crimes against women

- Amarnath K. Menon

On February 24, Chittoor’s first additional district judge, M. Venkata Harinath, awarded the death sentence to Mohammed Rafi, 27, for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl at Angallu village, near Madanapalle, on November 7 last year. A 100-member police team tracked down and arrested Rafi 10 days after the crime, while he was trying to escape to Chhattisgarh. The charge-sheet was filed 17 days after the arrest, and the trial completed 90 days after that.

Keen to broadcast his government’s steps to speed up judicial closure of crimes against women, Chief Minister Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy says, “It has taken eight years to punish the offenders in the Nirbhaya case, but under the Andhra Pradesh Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2019, offenders will be punished in less than a month.” To be sure, there is a need for swift action in such cases, as proved by the overjoyed public reaction to the encounter killing of the four accused of the rape and murder of a 27-year-old veterinarian on November 27 last year in Hyderabad.