Society to blame for rapes, says Jhansi top cop

'Rape is a social problem. It does not take place owing to police laxity'

A day after the Uttar Pradesh police chief sought to blunt the attack on the state police for being insensitive toward crimes against women by giving a new twist to the brutal gang rape and murder of the two teen aged cousins in Budaun district, another senior cop sprung to the defence of the police and blamed society for incidents of rape.

Sriparna Ganguly, police chief of UP’s Jhansi district, about 300 km from here, said it was wrong to hold police laxity responsible for rapes.

“Rape is a social problem. Social thinking is responsible for rapes. Society will have to ponder over it and find a solution. Rapes do not take place owing to police laxity,” she told reporters in Jhansi on Saturday.

Recently, SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's cousin and MP Ram Gopal Yadav had blamed television for rising incidents of rapes. Yadav had remarked that “vulgarity, obscenity and violence” shown on TV channels were responsible for crimes against women.

Before him, UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav himself had shot back at a woman reporter on a query regarding the Budaun gang-rape and murder case. “Are you not safe?” he had retorted to the query.

During the Lok Sabha election campaigning, Mulayam too had come in for sharp criticism for his remarks on rape. Addressing an election meeting at Moradabad, he had said, “Boys are boys. They sometimes make mistakes.” 

Mulayam had also said it was not right to award capital punishment in rape cases.