'Nothing has changed when it comes to police, prosecution system,' says Nirbhaya's father

Ballia (UP): Eleven years since the gut-wrenching Nirbhaya rape incident, the father of the victim said a lot has changed, but a lot has also remained the same when it comes to the police and prosecution system.

He said that the Narendra Modi government may have taken the country to historic highs, but till now it has not been able to do anything special when it comes to women's safety and stopping cruelty against them.

On the night of December 16, 2012, a 23-year-old physiotherapy trainee (name changed to Nirbhaya) was raped and mutilated by six men inside a moving bus in South Delhi and thrown outside. She died on December 29 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

On Saturday, 11 years after the incident, Nirbhaya's father paid a tearful tribute to his daughter in his village in Ballia district.

"Eleven years after the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder, nothing has changed in the country and even today daughters and women are not safe," the man told PTI.

"Changing the law won't change anything. The functioning of the police system has to be improved," he said.

The victim's father said the first instinct of police is to cover up the crime and in case there is some pressure, they investigate it in such a way that they botch it up.

"Today, the situation is such that whenever any incident of cruelty occurs, the police first start covering up the matter and suppressing it. Even when they take action under some compulsion, they are never serious about preserving the evidence," he said.

There is a need to change the prosecution system also, he said.

Criminals get represented by expensive well-known lawyers and get acquittal, he said. "On the other hand, there is poor advocacy by the government lawyer from the victim's side."