Ahmedabad Police Removes, Distances Itself From Posters Discouraging Women From Going Out at Night
Representative image of police officers. Photo: PTI.
New Delhi: Ahmedabad's police has taken down public posters advising women not to attend parties or go to secluded places at night lest they be 'raped or gangraped', it said, adding that it had nothing to do with them.
At least two posters put up by an organisation named the Satarkta Group in Ahmedabad had sparked anger over the last few days.
One of them advised women to 'not go to parties at night' as they could be 'raped or gangraped'.
Another poster, which read that it was 'sponsored' by the Ahmedabad city traffic police, told its male audience not to take their women friends 'to secluded places in the dark', going on to ask: 'what if they are raped or gangraped?'
Safin Hasan, deputy commissioner in the Ahmedabad police's traffic branch, said in a statement on Saturday (August 2) that the authorities immediately took the posters down after learning about their 'objectionable' content.
When they looked into the matter, it was found that while the Satarkta Group was granted permission to put up posters on traffic awareness, 'it went outside this remit' in installing the posters concerned, he claimed.
Police lodged a report on the matter with the aim of finding out whose permission the posters were installed with and whether the city municipal corporation's approval had been taken, Hasan said, adding that it will take legal action if criminal intent was discerned.
'The Ahmedabad police and the Ahmedabad city traffic police have no connection with these posters. The comments on the posters are contrary to our modus operandi and values,' he also said.
Opposition parties criticised Gujarat's BJP government for the posters.
'The police has put up a poster saying 'stay at home in order to stay protected from rape'. When there was opposition [to the posters], then they took them down and are now clarifying that they didn't put them up … In BJP-ruled states, where daughters should benefit from safety and justice, such crimes are being encouraged with such statements,' Congress leader Alka Lamba said at a press conference.
The Aam Aadmi Party said as per PTI that the posters 'express the reality of Gujarat'.
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