On Thursday, April 6, the special judge for SC and ST cases in Andhra Pradesh acquitted 13 cops accused in the gang-rape of 11 tribal women in Vakapalli in G Madugula Mandal of ASR district in the year 2007. The court acquitted the accused under section 235(1) Cr PC (acquittal on the benefit of doubt).
The policemen accused in the case belonged to the Greyhounds, the elite anti-Naxal police force in Andhra Pradesh. It was alleged that the cops raped the Adivasi women at gunpoint. The court, however, acquitted the accused due to the lack of evidence.
The judge pulled up the investigating officer M. Sivananda Reddy, for conducting a shoddy investigation into the matter and directed the state government to constitute an apex committee to take action against the officer. Since the other investigating officer B. Ananda Rao, is no more, no action was to be initiated against him, said the court.
Since the accused were acquitted due to failure in the investigation, the court asked the District Legal Services Authority to decide the quantum of compensation to the victims in the case after conducting a due inquiry.
11 tribal women gangraped by Andhra Pradesh policemen
Notably, the case pertains to a sexual assault incident that took place 15 years ago. In August 2007, eleven tribal women belonging to Vakapalli village under Nurmati Panchayat of G Madugula Mandal about 650 km from Hyderabad had alleged that 13 policemen, who were part of a 30-member Special Party of Andhra Pradesh Police and had visited their village for anti-Naxal combing operation, raped them on gunpoint.
The women alleged that the police team stormed the village just as the men were leaving to work in the fields, forcibly took them into huts, and raped them. When the men returned in the afternoon, the women complained to them. They went to their sarpanch, who alerted then-BSP MLA L Raja Rao. The women were taken to the deputy collector by the MLA and tribals, who then asked the police to file an FIR. A complaint was filed under Section 376 (2)(g) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 3(2)(v) of the SC and ST (PoA) Act, 1989.
The state government initially chose deputy SP (Visakhapatnam Rural) B Ananda Rao to probe the allegations, but he was later replaced by veteran police officer M Sivananda Reddy. At the time, Reddy was the SP of the Crime Branch (CID). Reddy eventually resigned and joined the Telugu Desam Party, running for Nandyal in 2019 but lost.
Lawyers defending the officers contended that Maoists forced the women to file false rape charges against them in order to prevent anti-Naxalite combing operations and that medical testing failed to confirm rape. The women, who were supported by tribal and SC/ST organizations, petitioned the Supreme Court, which decided that the medical test evidence provided to it did not indicate rape. The officers filed petitions to have the charges against them dismissed. The tribal organisations then petitioned the Supreme Court, which directed the Special Court for SC and ST cases to begin the trial and expedite the hearing in September 2017.
