Women force shutdown in Belgaum

Routine life came to a grinding halt in Belgaum yesterday as angry women activists took to the streets to build pressure on the police authorities to bring to book a dreaded gangster, who is accused of scripting a series of rapes and murder of women.

Shops and business establishments remained closed as the women marched through the streets of Belgaum in large numbers enforcing a dawn to dusk shutdown to protest the police inaction against tracing the gangster Pravin Shintre and his henchmen, who are still at large.

Pravin Shintre, who is also a politician, is accused in the sensational murder of Sheetal Chougale and Raziya Badebhai, which had kicked up a public outcry in Belgaum recently.

Sheetal Chougale, wife of a prominent contractor Ravindra Chougale, is alleged to have raped and killed by the members of the notorious gang at the behest of Chougale in a contract killing. Shintre’s gang is also suspected in the murder of Raziya Badebhai, a teacher in an Urdu primary.

A host of women’s organizations including Maratha Mandal and Priyadarshina Mahila Sangha, who had been organizing protests and road blockades in Belgaum since the murder of Sheetal Chougale came to light in the second week of August, called for a shutdown on Friday and took out a protest march through the streets of the town.

Though the police have arrested Ravindra Chougale and claim that a manhunt has been launched to nab Shintre and his gang members, the women’s organizations have accused the police of looking the other way on account of Shintre’s political connections.

The women’s activists have also been demanding the police to hand over to them Ravindra Chougale. “Hand over Ravindra Chougale to us in the same manner he had thrown his wife Sheetal to the jackals of Shintre’s gang. We will do justice to him”, said a woman activist, who had gathered at Rani Chennamma circle for a protest march. “Every woman in Belgaum is feeling insecure after Sheetal and Raziya murders came to light”, she said.

The women’s organizations went ahead with their decision to observe a shutdown in Belgaum despite an assurance by Belgaum’s Superintendent of Police Hemant Nimbalkar that the police will arrest Shintre. “We have already arrested five members of his gang. We will nab him as well as the remaining members soon”, Nimbalkar said. But, the women’s organizations paid no heed to his pleas to withdraw the shutdown call.