NEW DELHI: National Commission for Women (NCW) chief Vijaya Rahatkar on Monday said the offender in the alleged sexual assault case of a 19-year-old student at Anna University appears to be the habitual offender and has committed such crimes before but was not dealt with by the police.
The horrific incident took place on December 23 when the victim was attacked by an intruder while she was with a friend.
Talking about the case, the NCW chief also said that they have constituted a two-member committee and are meeting different people and parents of the victim.
Rahatkar said: “…Taking cognizance of the matter, NCW has given instructions to the police… It appears that the accused is a habitual offender and has committed such crimes earlier but was not taken care of by the police… Therefore, NCW has constituted a two-member investigation committee and is meeting different people at the University (Anna) as well as the victim’s parents…”
The research team, comprising NCW member Mamta Kumari and former Maharashtra DGP Praveen Dixit, visited the university.
Mamta Kumari, member of the NCW inquiry committee, says: “We have carried out the inquiry and presented the findings to the governor. I will hand over the report to the Commission… There have been shortcomings on the part of the University administration, police…”
Their agenda includes meetings with the survivor, her family, friends, officials and NGO representatives to gather information.
The committee aims to investigate the circumstances of the incident, evaluate the response measures taken and recommend preventive strategies for the future.
Earlier, the Madras High Court constituted an all-female Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising three IPS officers (Deputy Commissioners of Police Bhukya Sneha Priya, Ayman Jamal and S Brinda) to investigate the case.
A vacation bench of Justices SM Subramaniam and V Lakshminarayanan on Saturday also ordered a compensation of Rs 25 lakh to the survivor, a second-year engineering student, for the leaked FIR and the trauma suffered by her and her family members. The amount will be recovered from the salaries of the police personnel responsible for leaking the FIR into the public domain.
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