Students demand stringent punishment to rapists

Tirupati: Hundreds of girl students took out a rally in Tirupati and staged s demonstration at the office of the Revenue Divisional Officer's here on Wednesday demanding stringent punishment to rapists. Later, they handed over a memorandum to RDO Y. Ramachandra Reddy. The strict enforcement of law by the government in addition to bringing of awareness among the people and enlightening them was the only solution to curb such inhuman activities, they said. Students of JB College took out rally from Ramanujam Circle to RDO's office by holding placards and flexi banners. MCA student Savitri said that despite having stringent laws to punish the rapists in the society, crimes against women are continuing unabated throughout the country, because of loopholes in the enforcement of the existing laws. Once the culprits were punished by imposing the death penalty, it would be a deterrent to others, she said. A Another student said that the rapists should be punished with death penalty within a short time rather than prolonging the cases in courts continuously for years together. An outgoing student Giri Prasad, who led the massive protest rally, said that the punishment should be imposed on the culprit at the earliest and should not drag on for years together. There should be lot of awareness among the society about Indian culture, traditions and moral values and this could be possible with the active participation of governments, he added. The punishment by courts should scare the rapists from assaulting women sexually, and the capital punishment was the need of the hour, he stressed. Giri Prasad said that they are planning to continue such social agitations through 'Operation Five'. "We have chosen this name because a father and his son raped a five-year-old girl in Srikalahasthi few days ago, which is heinous in our society. The opposition to this incident inspired us and hence named it Operation Five," he said.