Telangana: Accused to undergo psych tests from now

HYDERABAD: The Women Safety Wing (WSW) of the Telangana police have realised that there is an urgent need to understand what is going on in a a criminal’s mind and identify prospective repeat offenders.
For this reason, they have decided to refer all offenders to psychologists to get a clearer picture of the offender and find out if he would commit the same or any other crime again in the future.
Taking cues from popular Hollywood movie ‘SE7EN’ where Brat Pitt plays a detective who stumbles upon crucial evidence from Kevin Spacey, the accused’s notebooks and help reveal the latter’s psychopathy, thereby helping Pitt get an idea about the crimes committed by the latter and nab him.
This decision was taken by the WSW after considering the near fatal attack on a 17-year-old girl in Barkatpura in February, by 19-year-old Bharat.
Bharat was warned initially warned and let off by the SHE Teams in his as first offence.
But he turned out to be a repeat offender and attempted to murder the girl.
“We want to refer all offenders caught by SHE Teams to psychologists, to study their mindset using various scientific methods, to find out whether they are capable of committing crimes again. We will later keep a vigil on the accused and take stern measures to prevent them from repeating the offence,” inspector general of police Women Safety Wing Swati Lakra told TOI.
This system is expected to be put in place across Telangana in the next one month and officials are in the process of selecting psychologists.
Officials said that the number of repeat offenders among minors is almost zero currently and it is only among the majors that cases of repeat offenders were found.
In Hyderabad, until 2018, a total of 1,028 cases were handled by the SHE Team and Bharosa Teams and an FIR was registered in 64 cases.
Right now minors are being counselled by psychologists while the upcoming plan will be implemented by reading the mindset of the offenders after they are put through various tests. This test also includes those who will be let off with a warning, as in many cases, victims ask the police to counsel the accused and ask them to stay away from them or let them go without lodging a complaint.