PRESS NOTE.........‘SHE Teams’ was launched........

PRESS NOTE

‘SHE Teams’ was launched on 24th October, 2014, with the sole aim and objective of curbing eve teasing/street harassment and providing a safe and secure Hyderabad City for  women.

Since the launch, the teams worked hard to ensure the sense of security among women and sense of fear among the harassers.

TYPES OF HARASSERS  BOOKED  :-

Various types of modus operandi was seen during the harassment of women

• Cases of stalking and teasing-
• Passing lewd comments,
• Trying to touch inappropriately in crowded areas
• Sending abusive messages to the mobiles of victims
• making calls and talking vulgarly during late nights
• Harassment through face book and emails
• Using previous friendship or closeness, photos, videos and trying to blackmail the victim through face book and internet
• Public nuisance using bikes, four wheelers etc to attract the attention of the ladies near colleges, schools etc. Cases were booked, the accused were arrested and produced in the court.

RESULTS

• 281 persons and above were caught.
• Minors-129, Majors-152.
• 12 Nirbhaya Act cases booked.
• 10 IPC cases in different police stations
• 126 petty cases were booked,
• 19 persons were jailed, 101 persons were fined, 39 persons were warned and let off.

BREAK UP OF THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CASES

• Passing lewd comments, stalking –77
• Phone harassment – missed calls, wrong calls, late night calls-08
• Face book/Email harassment – 10
• General nuisance-on bikes, cars /taking photos without the knowledge of the victims-35
• IPC cases of outraging the modesty of women- 10
• Cyber Crimes/Nirbhaya Act - 12

COMPLAINTS AND INFORMATION RECEIVED THROUGH VARIOUS SOURCES:

• Till now total 883 complaints were received through various means and attended to
• 573 complaints from Dial 100
• 196 from face book
• 63 from E-mail
• 37 direct complaints
• 113 through Hawk eye.  
• 75 Whats app

MINOR COUNSELLING SESSIONS:-

Apart from counselling by the Officers, for minors caught in eve teasing, professional counselling sessions were conducted along with their parents in order to guide them for the career and mould their behaviour in a proper way to become good citizens. Services of 6 member panel of professional psychologists and NGOs were taken for this.

CAMPAIGN:-

• Apart from catching the accused and booking cases, to change the mind set of the people and to create awareness regarding she teams more than 100 colleges, 70 schools, 160 private and working women hostels, Government schools, social welfare hostels etc were covered. All major crowded areas like bus stops, railway stations, parks, shopping malls, labour addas, slum areas, cinema theatres, RTC buses, MMTS trains, 7 seater autos etc were covered
• Special drive for awareness campaign was conducted on 26th November, 2014 by all the Officers of the rank of ACP and above including the DCP, DD. They visited all reputed Colleges and conducted meetings to create awareness regarding She teams. More than 20,000 students both male and female attended the meetings.
• The teams conducted massive awareness campaign at Numaish on 24th January, 2015,byAddl DCP, and ACsp She teams, in addition to regular task of checking for harassment there.
• Women’s Day run/walk/cycling was conducted at people’s plaza, necklace road on 8th March, 2015
• CLAPP ( Community Led Action Programme by Police) in coordination with PCVC an international organization and American Consulate was launched at St Mary’s College, Yusufguda.
• For addressing issues of gender sensitivity, conducted work shops with British consulate and NGO, Voice4girls at Social welfare schools and St Ann’s College, Mehdipatnam
• SHE Teams presence during  Bonalu ,Ganesh Immersion and Batukuamma festival :- During the Bonalu, Ganesh procession and immersion and Batukuamma festival to create a sense of security among women, SHE Teams were deployed in the entire City. During the festival several persons including different kinds of teasing/harassing women were caught and were booked under relevant cases.
• Bikethon rally was organised along with vasanthalakshmi Foundation and NGO Tharuni on International Girl child day on 11th October.
• Open House was conducted at Parade Grounds, Secunderabad during Police Commemoration week celebrations by the Hyderabad City Police. She teams opened a stall and children and students were explained about the She teams and how it helps for the safety of women and how to reach the teams in case of any need. She team bands, pamphlets, key chains etc were distributed to the children. Their feed back was also taken which was very positive,  encouraging for the teams and motivated to work more effectively for the protection of the women.

PEOPLE’S RESPONSE AND PARTICIPATION

• Dial 100 and social media was effectively used by the victims to approach the SHE Teams with problems. Many people could get their problems solved with the help of the SHE Teams and at the same time their identity was not exposed.
• This is encouraging the women to come forward to SHE Teams with their problems freely and confidently.

EXTENDED TO CYBERABAD AND WHOLE STATE OF TELANGANA

• By observing the success of SHE Teams in the Hyderabad City, it was first extended to Cyberabad and then to the entire Telangana State by providing necessary training to the District Police by the SHE Teams Hyderabad City Police.
• Now the entire Telangana State has the SHE Teams working relentlessly for the safety of women.

FUTURE PLAN OF ACTION

• In the path of providing safety and security to women, different kinds of posters, banners, pamphlets, movie slides, short films and folk songs are prepared to reach the people and convey the safety message.
• Volunteers from all age groups, reformed accused, NGOs, and eminent persons from all the fields including the print and electronic media  are doing their best possible to help  in taking forward the programme as a people’s movement to change the mindset of the people as a whole gradually. This will definitely provide a safe and secure environment to the people of the state to achieve the task of Golden Telangana.

The hard work done by all the SHE Team members and Cyber Crimes CCS DD officers under the supervision of Smt. Kavitha, ACP SHE Teams, Sri Ranjan Ratan Kumar Addl. DCP Admin CCS  and Sri Dr.T.Prabhakar Rao, Jt. Commissioner of Police CCS DD is highly appreciated.

     

Dt: 28-10-2015.

SWATI LAKRA I.P.S.,

Addl. Commissioner of Police,

Crimes and SIT, Hyderabad City.

SOME EXAMPLES OF THE CASES CAUGHT BY THE SHE TEAMS:-

1.     Sravanyadav s/o Venkatesh, 19 yrs, Occ: student, R/o 18-8-781/3/b/1, Rajannabavi, Falaknuma, Hyderabad  is following girls regularly who are going from Rajannabavi to Owaisi hospital through college bus.  He is waiting at the bus stop for the arrival of the girls, and stalking college girls, teasing and passing comments on girls since many days.  He is also following the college bus up to 5km every day. On Complaint given by the Bus driver, She team caught hold of the respondent along with video and photo evidence, booked a petty case and produced before Hon’ble Magistrate, who has given a sentence of 2 days imprisonment and Rs. 50/- fine.

2.     Syed Ashen Omer S/o Syed omer, age 23 yrs, Occ: BAMS Doctor R/o Tolichowki was caught by the She team when he was teasing a lady at the Tolichowki bus stop and sending vulgar messages and making blank calls to her. He was arrested by SHE Teams.

3.    While the She team is on task and observation at SR Nagar, near Umesh Chandra Statue, beside Royal Junior College,  7 Persons ( 4 minors and 3 Majors namely 1. Rishpal Singh S/o Harjeet Singh, age: 19 yrs, student R/o 7-1-103/1, Gurudwara back side, Ameerpet, 2. P. Sunil Kumar Goud S/o Vedprakash, age 18yrs, student, R/o 8-3-234/51/1, Lakshmi Narasimhanagar, yousufguda, 3. G.Ganesh s/o G.Prasad, age 18 yrs, , student R/o 8-3-228/1280/471, Jawahar Nagar, Yousufguda, Hyderabad, were found teasing the girls and talking vulgarly about their female counterparts and teachers. They were doing obscene acts and creating public nuisance. The team has recorded entire episode and caught hold of them red handed. Minors were counselled before their parents and petty cases were booked on the majors, who were arrested and being produced in the court.

4.    A person by name R. Karthik, S/o Shankara Chary, 22yrs, Occ: Student, R/o H.No-4-7-99/3, Prakashnagar, Khammam, was harassing and teasing a lady who was his friend since few days. On the complaint given by the victim, a petty case was booked, he was arrested and being produced in the Court.

5.    In the fifth case, a lady was going back home from night shift duty, at around 5A.M. After coming to Bowenpally area she noticed that one person was following her on bike since some time. She was afraid and made a call to her male friend while driving and continued to talk with him over phone. When she reached her home and stopped the car, the person also stopped the bike and observing her. She was afraid of coming out as it is dark and no one was there even in her house. Then a person who was walking along with his dog came there, but this could not stop the person from observing and following her. So she started her car and moved to main road for safe place and reached a patrol bunk. He followed her to the bunk and parked his bike at a distance in the dark and was observing her so that she will think that he went off. The lady could make out that he is still standing there and she informed the matter to her male colleague. By the time he reached there, and started walking towards the bike to confront the accused. He started running off by watching the person and escaped in the dark. His bike was there. The male friend took a snap of the bike and the entire episode was posted on the She team face book page along with the bike photo. This is not the first time she faced such incidents and wanted to take action on the accused this time. With the details posted on the face book, She team caught hold of the accused by name Mohd Zia Uddin, S/o Habeebuddin, 27yrs, Occ;Student, R/oNBT Nagar, Banjara Hills, who was identified and confirmed by the victim. He was arrested, produced in the court.

6.    On 21-01-2015, 2 intermediate students by names 1. B. SaiKrishna,S/oB.V.Subba Rao,17yrs,student, R/o Moulali 2. G.Narayana, S/o Ramulu, 16yrs, student, R/o Moulali were standing at Tarnaka bus stop since1hour and were moving from one bus stop to other. They commented school girls going that side. This was observed by the she teams moving in the area and videographed with discreet camera. The persons were caught and counselled before their parents not to repeat such things in future.

7.     On 22-01-2015 morning at around 10.30A.M, when the She teams were moving near Mehdipatnam area, 2 persons 1.Noman, S/o Javeed,19yrs, student, R/o Malakpet 2. AfzalTameemMohiuddin, S/o AfzalMohiuddin, 19 yrs, student, R/o Malakpet were giving slip containing their phone number and “call me” ‘ may be’ letters to the girls sitting in the Deccan bakery were caught red handed arrested and produced in the court.

8.    MedaboinaRamulu, S/o Chandraiah, age:35years, Occp:Auto driver, R/o Balakrishna Nagar, Ramanthapur, was driving the auto bearing no.AP 12V 9437 in the City in different areas since 6 months. While he was moving in Lothkunta area with the auto waiting for passengers around 12 noon, a woman was going on the road alone by walk. He asked the lady whether she want an auto. She refused and continued to walk. The accused followed her, stopped the auto in front of her and again asked her for auto. When she refused and continued to walk, he stared at her passed abusive remarks and followed her for some distance. Then the victim intimated the auto number to her husband who inturn informed the Police and posted the issue on the SHE TEAM Face book page. She team have caught the auto driver, using the auto number provided.The SHE Teams arrested the accused and handed over to the Thirumalgiri Police and sent to Judicial Remand.

   

     

SWATI LAKRA I.P.S.,

Addl. Commissioner of Police,

Crimes and SIT, Hyderabad City.