Online trolling against women will be violence: Maneka Gandhi

Minister for women and child development Maneka Gandhi on Tuesday said online trolling against women will be considered violence. She also accused the police and forensic experts of incompetence in the April 28 brutal rape and murder of the dalit woman in Kerala’s Ernakulum district, that sparked mass protests.

Ms Gandhi also said that she was concerned about the way in which forensic experts were handling such cases. “One of the things that should emerge from this report is strengtheing forensics in the police. It is the forensic department that is always to blame for the misscarriage of justice which is what happened in the Aarushi Talwar case and in this case,” she said.

Accusing the police of dithering in its investigation into the attack on the student, Ms Gandhi said an independent probe into the case by the National Commission for Women found glaring problems with the way in which forensic experts were handling the assault. “We sent an NCW team to the state the day the news came out (on May 4). This was a Scheduled Caste girl from a very poor background, who lived with her sister and mother in a hut. This instance is not unique to Kerala but to many other states. A family which has only women members often faces a lot of problems even from their neighbours than (those) with men,” the minister said.

She said that the NCW report mentioned that “even after the victim had complained to the police about a neighbour who threatened her with rape, the police didn’t care to act. It considered it as a case of eve-teasing instead.”