Activist under attack for campaign against rapists

Anti-trafficking activist Sunitha Krishnan’s car was attacked on Friday by unidentified people, just hours after she posted “name and shame the rapist” campaign in an English channel.  The attack had left the car’s windshield broken.

After the attack, which took place outside Prajvala Home run by the activist in Hussainialam, Sunitha lodged a complaint over phone with Charminar ACP Ashok Chakravarthy. Hussainialam Additional Inspector Kiran is on the lookout for the miscreants. 

A case under Section 427 of the Indian Penal Code was registered for causing mischief.

"Yesterday (Thursday) I started a campaign against these rapists requesting all the people to trace them. Within hours my car got attacked," she tweeted, expressing dismay that the response for the attack was quicker while the rape incident remains unsolved. 

“There is no effort to identify the culprits as I was told that the video was making rounds in WhatsApp for the past six months,” Sunitha told reporters. 

Following information from the well wishers of Prajvala home about the videos, Sunitha edited them, masked the victims’ faces and sent out a message asking people to identify the perpetrators.

“There are two videos. One is 8 minutes long in which five men were smiling while raping a hapless woman, another is 4.5 minutes long where a woman is raped by a person and (the scene) was shot on a mobile phone by two other men,” Sunitha said. 

While YouTube removed the videos showing the rapists, a determined Sunitha said she would meet the Union Home Secretary and hand over the footages. 

Meanwhile, City Additional Commissioner Swati Lakra said in a statement that policemen dealing with such cases should be sensitised. 

A native of Bengaluru, 43-year-old Sunitha Krishnan was gang-raped by eight men when she was just 15. She survived 14 attacks on her and receives death threats regularly. 

After her schooling in several parts of the country, including Bengaluru, Krishnan completed her Bachelors in environmental sciences from St Joseph’s College in Bengaluru and went on to do her Masters in Social Works from Mangalooru’s Roshni Nilaya and her Ph D in social works from Harvard University.