A social activist has criticised Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh over his remarks on a TV programme, justifying moral policing and blaming "promiscuous culture" for an unsafe city.
Singh had said during a viewers' call-in show, "We have to strike a balance. On one hand you want to have a promiscuous culture and on the other hand you want a safe and secure environment for the people."
Singh made these remarks just when the Mumbai Police were getting praises for handling of the gang-rape of a photo journalist in the city.
"Girls aged 4, 6, 8, 10 and 11 years have been raped, many of them, most cruelly. Mr Singh needs to tell us whether they were promiscuous and provoked the rapists," social activist Gerson da Cunha said.
"It is clear that molestation of women is done by a criminal mind from whom we desire protection by the police. Such persons exploit deserted places and by Singh's own admission, there are 242 such places in the city that the police have identified," da Cunha, convenor of NGO AGNI, told PTI.
"These places need to be made secure with whatever force is required," he said.
"The commissioner has said beat patrolling requires more staff than he can deploy. But he seems to have no difficulty in providing half of his police force -- 27,000 out of 40,000 -- to VIP security and bandobast," he said.
"Singh cannot possibly believe that the kind of politicians we have deserve more protection than we ordinary citizens and specially women," da Cunha said.
"This is something that he and others in charge of police must take urgent note of," he added.
