Five men booked under Disha Act for raping mentally challenged woman in Andhra Pradesh

Five men were accused of raping a mentally challenged woman in Chavatapalem, Prakasam District, Andhra Pradesh. All of them have been booked under the Andhra Pradesh Disha Act, 2019. As per the act, the law enables the death penalty for rape and reduces the judgment period to 21 working days in the presence of conclusive evidence.

The incident occurred on 5 January, when the woman stepped out of her home for doing some chores. The five then forcibly took her to a secluded place. When she resisted, she was reportedly hit on the head with a stone, raped, slashed with a blade and killed. Nellore district SP Bhaskar Bhushan visited the site of the incident and directed special teams under the supervision of Atmakuru DSP to arrest the accused.

Four of the accused were identified as Govind Swamy, D Sai Siva Kumar, Ch Lakshmaiah, and S Vinod Kumar. Guduru rural Circle Inspector Ramakrishna Reddy, who made the arrests, stated that three men have rowdysheets against them. They have been kept in judicial custody at Kondagunta railway station in Andhra Pradesh.

The police identified a surgical knife that was used to kill the victim at the crime scene. Previously, a similar knife was used in another murder case, which one of the accused – Sai had used. This formed as a clue to track down all the five accused.

The five men have been booked under the Disha Act, 2019 which deems that harshest punishment – hanging unto death be awarded to convicts within twenty-one days of the crime. The Andhra Pradesh government vowed to set up special courts to try these cases in all thirteen districts. Two top women officers have been entrusted with the responsibility of implementing the Act in the state.