281 eve-teasers caught by 'SHE Teams' in one year

The 'SHE Teams', which was set up to keep a hawk's eye on eve-teasers, caught as many as 281 offenders in the city, including 129 minors, since October last year, an official said today. On October 24 last year, the Hyderabad police had set up SHE Teams to crack down on eve-teasers and stalkers, which was subsequently extended across Telangana districts. "The SHE Teams were launched with the sole aim and objective of curbing eve teasing/street harassment and providing a safe and secure Hyderabad city for women," Additional Commissioner of Police (Crimes and SIT) Swathi Lakra said. Various types of modus operandi were seen, including stalking and teasing, passing lewd comments, trying to touch inappropriately at crowded places, sending abusive messages to the victims on their mobiles, making calls and talking indecently during late nights. Harassment through social media like Facebook and e-mails and using previous friendship or proximity, photos, videos and trying to blackmail the victim online were some of the ways seen, she explained. Cases were also booked for public nuisance using bikes, four wheelers, etc to attract the attention of the ladies near colleges, schools, etc. "12 cases were booked under the Nirbhaya Act, besides 10 IPC cases in different police stations were registered apart from 126 petty cases. 19 persons were jailed, 101 persons were fined, 39 were warned and let off," the officer said. "Till now, a total of 883 complaints were received through various means and attended to," Swathi Lakra said. Apart from counselling by the officers, for minors caught in eve-teasing, professional counselling sessions were conducted along with their parents in order to guide them for the career and mould their behaviour in a proper way to become good citizens, she said adding services of six member panel of professional psychologists and NGOs were taken. The juvenile offenders are counselled and made to participate in anti-eve teasing campaign, she said.