15 years after, court acquits 13 Andhra cops in Vakapalli gangrape case

Rao died during the trial.

The court directed that Reddy be referred to the Apex Committee which was constituted to inquire into complaints against the two investigating officers for trying to derail the probe and discredit the rape survivors’ statement.

The judge directed that as the policemen were acquitted due to the “shoddy investigation”, the rape survivors are entitled to compensation and directed the District Legal Service Authority at Visakhapatnam to decide the amount of compensation and pay the survivors as soon as possible. Two of the eleven tribal women died during the trial, which was delayed for over 10 years and began only in March 2018.

On August 20, 2007, a 30-member team of special branch police had launched a combing operation in the early hours in the tribal hamlet of Vakapalli in G Madugula Mandal, now in the newly-created Alluri Sitarama Raju district. Eleven women belonging to the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) Kondhu tribe later alleged that they were raped and assaulted by 13 policemen. They approached their sarpanch, who informed then BSP MLA L Raja Rao. The MLA and tribals took the women to the deputy collector, who directed the police to register an FIR. The case was registered under IPC Section 376 (2) (g) (gangrape) and Section 3(2)(v) of SC and ST (PoA) Act, 1989.

The then state government had appointed Deputy SP (Visakhapatnam Rural) B Ananda Rao to investigate the allegations and later replaced him with SP M Sivananda Reddy. Reddy later took voluntary retirement and joined the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and unsuccessfully contested from Nandyal Lok Sabha constituency in 2019.

Lawyers on behalf of the policemen stated that Maoists had forced the women to foist false cases of rape against them to prevent anti-Naxalite combing operations, and argued that medical tests did not prove any rape. The women moved the High Court which ruled that the medical tests evidence presented before it did not prove rape. The policemen later filed petitions to squash the case against them.

The tribal organisations then approached the Supreme Court, which in September 2017 directed the special court for SC and ST cases to start the trial and fast-track the hearing. Senior lawyer from Vijayawada Sunkara Rajendra Prasad was chosen by the rape survivors as the special public prosecutor.
“The police did everything they could to delay the trial. In spite of the court’s order, they did not produce the duty registers and other documents in the court. The investigation officer did not even conduct an identification parade of the accused. The statements of the survivors were not taken for several days,” Prasad said.

V S Krishna, convener of Human Rights Forum (HRF), one of the organisations that supported the tribals in their legal battle, said that the court observation that it was acquitting the policemen “only due to shoddy investigation” vindicated the women’s allegations. “The verdict vindicates the long-standing allegation of the women surviours, Adivasis and rights organisations that the investigation was compromised. Now we have to ensure that the survivors are paid the compensation,’’ he said.