Two days after a 40-year-old transgender woman was allegedly attacked by two men on a motorbike at the Secunderabad Bus Station, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (North Zone) has started investigation on the incident on Thursday. This comes after a transgender rights activist raised the issue in a Facebook post.
“We have started the investigation, but first the trans woman need to register a case with the police, only then we can help out in any way. They have to give some information about the two men for us to investigate. However, they should have filed an FIR soon after the incident,” DCP B Sumathi told TNM.
However, Hyderabad-based a transgender rights activist, Rachana Mudraboyina, alleged in a Facebook post that the trans woman, along with few other from the community, had approached the patrolling police and that they had simply ignored their complaint.
On early Tuesday morning, when the woman was returning home, two men threw a handful of chilli power on her face, and the police reportedly did not take her complaint seriously.
The police took note of the incident only after Rachana posted about the incident on her Facebook page. Soon after which the DCP, on Thursday called Rachana to get information about the incident.
“What is the use of filing an FIR, when the cases are just going to pile up in the stations.This is not the first incident that has happened. We have earlier filed cases in several area in Hyderabad, but not one case have been looked into,” Rachana said.
She says, due to lack of CCTV camera and street lights in that area, police has been struggling for evidence.
“We will file complaint, but will anything change? These attacks are very frequent. There has been several cases piled up in Secunderabad, Gopalapuram, Indiranagar and several other places. When we call to follow up on the cases, they simply say, we will have to wait,” she claimed.
When asked about the allegations to the DCP, she refused to respond to it.
Rachna says that from 2014 to 2016, the crime against transgender persons has increased, for which there is no data with the government or the police.
“They ask us why we work late hours or beg . But is the government providing any solutions for that? We do not like this work but we don’t have a choice. As there are no other way we can survive. Even if we go to file a complaint they blame us instead because we are in a certain kind of profession. Even after repeated complaints they do not take any action or start investigation. We have lost hope that the police will do anything for our safety,” she adds.