Amid mounting tension, the 27-year-old pregnant woman, a gang-rape survivor, was brought from Repalle in the neighbouring Bapatla district to Ongole on Sunday.
A large number of angry relatives and friends of the Dalit woman from her native Venkatadripalem village, near Yerragondapalem, thronged the Government General Hospital (GGH), where she was admitted for better medical treatment. She was initially admitted in the Repalle Community Health Centre.
Waiting for hours in front of the hospital, they were all a worried lot as the police denied them permission to visit her at the hospital, where she was recuperating after being sexually assaulted allegedly by three youth.
Meanwhile, the woman’s relatives, quoting her husband, alleged that the railway police had not responded to his plea to come to their rescue. The woman’s husband reportedly poured out their woes to the relatives over phone.
The woman’s relatives and friends went to Guntur expecting that she would be brought there, but returned to Ongole later. They alleged that an attempt was being made by the government to dilute the case as they were not being allowed to meet the troubled couple. The relatives further alleged that the woman’s husband was robbed of the little cash he had allegedly by the perpetrators of the crime.
Meanwhile, the police stepped up security to avert any breakdown of law and order as the activists of the opposition Telugu Desam Party and other parties gathered in front of the GGH.
Prakasam Superintendent of Police Malika Garg beefed up security at the Ongole railway station to avert any untoward incident.
Crime against women rising: TDP
TDP activists, led by Kondepi MLA Dola Balaveeranjenya Swamy, staged a protest in front of the GGH demanding justice for the woman.
Incidents of crime against women were on the rise as the YSR Congress Party government failed to take deterrent action against the perpetrators, he alleged.
Mr. Swamy said he was upset that even an MLA hailing from the Dalit community was not allowed to console the woman.
Meanwhile, the police took into preventive custody the TDP leaders, including party’s Yerragondapalem in-charge Ericson Babu, and All India Democratic Women’s Association leaders, including its city president K. Ramadevi, as they tried to gatecrash into the GGH. They were shifted to the N.G. Padu police station later.
TDP Ongole Lok Sabha unit president N. Balaji demanded that the government announce a compensation of ₹25 lakh to the rape survivor.
TDP legislators Gottipati Ravikumar (Addanki) and Yeluri Sambasiva Rao (Parchur) vehemently condemned the incident.
