Concerned citizens demand the Hyderabad police and the Media to reveal the truth in Ms. Swetha Basu case

We, the undersigned concerned citizens belonging to different sections of society like the media, the academia, the film industry, literature, and the NGO sector etc., would like to unequivocally state and demand that –

- The Hyderabad police has played an utterly partisan and anti-women role in revealing only the woman’s name in the prostitution racket that the police has claimed to have cracked on 2 September 2014.

- When the police had claimed that the culprits were caught “red-handed”, why is the man who paid for the sexual favours not arrested and booked?

- We are of the firm belief that the police are hand-in-glove with the rich man and have deliberately allowed him to get away and therefore are not revealing his name and identity. Why should we not call this rich client a male sex patron/prostitute? It is our suspicion that they made a so-called broker, one Mr. Balu, a scapegoat on his behalf.

- We deeply regret the role of the media which published stories about the woman in question along with her photo, and the alleged admission by her of having been involved in the trade. What prevented the media from questioning the police on the identity of the man, and the name of the five star hotel? When sections of the media take pride in investigative reporting, why are they silent in this case? How is it that the police version alone got reported without any independent enquiry?

- The police and the media have been totally insensitive to the future of the woman in question by vilifying her character even while shamelessly covering up the man’s and the hotel’s identity.

- We would like to know on what grounds the cases have been booked on her, and on what grounds has she been sent to a rehabilitation home when she is not a homeless person? We would also like to know whether the procedure laid out in the Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act was followed in her arrest.

We demand the Hyderabad Police and Hyderabad Media to reveal the name of the male sex client and the hotel in question, and the police should book similar cases against him as those booked against the woman. Hyderabad police owe an explanation to the people and come out clean in this regard.

We would like to submit this petition to Hyderabad and Cyberabad Police Commissioners, and Heads of the media organisations in the city. We appeal to all the concerned citizens to sign this online petition in large numbers. We also request you all to copy and paste this matter and send it as emails to the police commissioners to the following ids:

Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad city: [email protected]

Commissioner of Police, Cyberabad: [email protected]

With regards,