Visakhapatnam: Collector, deputy director of social welfare wing booked
Visakhapatnam: The MVP Colony police registered cases against Vizag district collector Pravin Kumar and deputy director of social welfare department, Vizag, D.V. Ramana Murthy, under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for their alleged negligence in sanctioning compensation to a woman victim in Vizag. The police said that a 22-year-old Dalit woman from Mangapuram Colony in Vizag city was supposed to receive a compensation of Rs 5 lakh from the social welfare department of Vizag, being a victim in a case which was registered in August, 2016, as per Rule 12(4) of SC & ST (POA) Act.
The woman alleged that she has not received the promised amount despite submitting all documents and repeated requests. A few days ago, she approached SC, ST (POA) Special Court in Vizag city and filed a petition citing that Mr Ramana Murthy and Mr Pravin Kumar ignored sanctioning the compensation to her. Based on the petition of the victim, the court directed the MVP Colony police to register cases against the duo and investigate.
The MVP Colony police, led by inspector Malla Maheswara Rao, on January 3, registered an FIR against both as per the court order. In the report, the deputy director of social welfare office, Vizag, was registered as the main accused, while the district collector was the second accused, under sections Section 4 of SC/ST POA Act and Section 156 (3) of CrPC. Sources said that girl was cheated by a youngster, A.S. Murthy, in the name of love and the police registered a case against Murthy under Sections 417, 420 and 376 of IPC.
The victim is entitled to get a compensation of Rs 5 lakh (Rs 3.75 lakh within a few weeks and the rest later). Though Mr Ramana Murthy and Mr Pravin Kumar (who is also director of social welfare department) are the competent authorities to grant and sanction the compensation, the victim had got Rs 25,000 compensation so far as the social welfare department officials had tried to siphon off the money by diluting the sections.
The police said that they have registered FIR and will investigate into it. Expressing that they have a lot of faith in the judiciary, the district administration, on behalf of district collector Pravin Kumar, claimed that they have issued the compensation of Rs 25,000 on September 23, 2016 and Rs 3.5 lakh on December 10, 2016 to the victim woman without any delay. The Rs 3.5 lakh amount was credited to her account on January 1, 2017. The officials dismissed the allegations of the woman and said that they had taken the steps to sanction the compensation to the victim woman without any delay.
