Need To Create Fear In Minds Of Goons Committing Crimes Against Women: SC

The Supreme Court on Monday said there was a need to create fear in the minds of goons committing crimes against women, while noting that there is a feeling that women are not safe in the city, particularly some vulnerable pockets.

The court made the remarks while hearing a suo motu case over recent rape incidents in Delhi-NCR.

"We have to work together. We must ensure that every woman in Delhi-NCR should feel safe even at 11 pm whether travelling on the roads or the metro," a bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran observed.

"What is important is to prevent a crime, not what you do after a crime is committed," the bench said, adding police needs to create fear in the mind of goons and anti-social elements who are prone to committing such crimes.

The bench, which was hearing a suo motu case titled 'In Re: Recent rape incidents in Delhi NCR', observed that "rape is something which is not at all acceptable to any society".

The apex court had on September 28 taken suo motu cognisance of news reports about crimes against minor girls and women across Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR), observing that such cases underline a systematic failure on the part of law enforcement authorities.

The top court took cognisance of the alleged gang-rape of a 17-year-old girl at Aastha Kunj Park in Delhi, gang-rape and murder of a teenage girl in Swaroop Nagar area of Delhi and sexual assault of a minor girl inside a moving sleeper bus which the law enforcement agencies failed to intercept while it traversed a distance of over 47 km from Greater Noida to Delhi.