India’s Supreme Court Slams Police for Brutality against Women

India’s Supreme Court Thursday slammed the police force for the rising frequency of incidents of brutality against women, describing them as “insult to the country”.

The apex court required an explanation from the Delhi Police as to why a young woman protester was brutally slapped while she was demonstrating outside a hospital against the recent gang rape of a five-year-old girl in the national capital. The victim has been undergoing treatment at the hospital where the incident took place, Xinhua reported.

The judges also asked the government of the Northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh to explain why a women protester in her 60s was beaten up by policemen in the town of Aligarh last week during protests over the rape and death of a six-year-old.

Both the police excesses on women protesters were caught on camera and TV channels beamed the footage all day long.

“How do you treat women in your state? Even an animal won’t do what the police officers are doing every day in different parts of the country,” the top court asked government lawyers.

Though the Delhi Police had suspended the errant cop who slapped a woman protester, the Uttar Pradesh government is yet to act against the cops who brutally assaulted the aged women.

Experts say that there is an immediate need to sensitize the country’s police force towards women who are often reluctant to even go to cops to report any complaint of sexual assaults on them.