Journalist bodies in Mumbai condemn gangrape

All media persons to rally announced at 3.00 pm at Hutatma Chowk

The entire press corps in Mumbai expressed its shock and disgust at the gangrape of a journalist intern in a lifestyle Magazine in the precincts of the abandoned Shakti Mills in the heart of the city.

She was on a photo-assignment shooting derelict and abandoned sites in the city. In a joint statement by the Press Club Mumbai, Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh, Television Journalist Association, Bombay News Photographers Association and Mantralaya and Vidhi Mandal Vartahar Sangh, the organizations have demanded that the culprits of the heinous act should be immediately arrested and meted out the sternest punishment.
 
All journalist organizations have also decided to rally in large number today and hold a ‘Silent Protest’ at Hutatma Chowk at 3.00 pm today 23 Augustagainst the deteriorating law and order situation in Maharasthra State and the city.

The journalist organizations will also meet the Home Minister R R Patil and the Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan to press for early action in this case.
 
In a late night meeting, past midnight, a delegation of Press Club representatives and other journalists met the Commissioner of Police, Dr Satyapal Singh, at the N M Joshi Marg Police Station to condemn the heinous crime.

They told him that the series of brazen criminal acts – the recent killing of rationalist Dr Narendra Dhabolkar in Pune, and the rape of a journalist in the heart of Mumbai – showed that the police had failed to provide safety and security to ordinary citizens.

The Police chief was also told that the perception gaining ground was that in most cases the perpetrators of such crimes were never traced, and the victims were left without justice.
 
Mr Satyapal Singh said those involved in the gangrape case would be nabbed “very soon”.  It appears the police was aware that the site of the crime – the abandoned Shakti Mills at Mahalxmi, near Famous Studio – had become a cesspool of criminals and drug addicts. However, no steps had been taken to nip this in the bud.

The failure by the law enforcing agencies to secure its boundaries or direct the management of the mill to ensure guards had made it a beehive of criminal activities, which has now culminated in the heinous crime of gangrape.
 
The organizations of journalists demanded that the criminals involved in the gangrape be immediately brought to book, and that all necessary steps be taken to ensure that the safety and security of journalists and common citizens.