CPI Maoists say verdict in Vakapalli gangrape case biased

Visakhapatnam: With the verdict in the Vakapalli gangrape case "the state once again exposed its class bias," said Andhra-Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Maoists) Ganesh on Tuesday in a statement.

A special court in Vishakhapatnam on April 6 acquitted all the 13 policemen who were accused in the Vakapalli gangrape case. 11 Adivasi women belonging to the Kondh community were allegedly gang-raped at a village in Andhra Pradesh's Alluri Sitarama Raju district in 2007. "It has been 16 years since the Greyhound (a special anti-Naxal police force) police gang-raped 11 tribal women in Vakapalli. The incident happened on Aug 21, 2007. One of the officials of the inquiry commission appointed on the incident died. Another could not give a proper investigation report. So the court declared that the police who committed the rape are innocent. Through this judgment, the state once again exposed its class nature," said Ganesh in a statement released on Tuesday.

In the statement, he also alleged, "It has been proved once again that under this system, poor tribals especially women cannot get justice."
Ganesh, in the statement, also called for a protest of the Maoists against the court's verdict.

In the verdict, the court had cited the failure of the investigating officers in conducting a fair and impartial investigation and therefore acquitted all the accused in the case. (ANI)