New Delhi: Additional charges have been slapped to the killers of bravehearts Keenan Santos and Ruben Fernandes.
Jitendra Rana and his accomplices have been charged with outraging a woman's modesty and criminal intimidation apart from murder.
This has been done after the remaining two witnesses including Priyanka Fernandes' statements were recorded.
The Mumbai police has also set up special squads with women personnel in the western suburbs of Mumbai to deal with cases of crime against women.
"The mobile vans for patrolling will be strengthened with one sub inspector who will preferably be a lady officer. There will also be two lady constables, one of whom will be in plain clothes," police officials said.
Meanwhile, on Monday, about 300 citizens took out a march in the suburban Mumbai demanding eve teasing be made a non-bailable offence.
The long march from Andheri (west) to Amboli was organised to protest against the recent murders of Reuben Fernandes and Keenan Santos, who were killed after they protested against sexual harassment.
The march was organised by the activists belonging to NGOs Yuva Satta and Zero Tolerance as well as India against Corruption.
"We are carrying out a signature campaign, both through public support and with an online campaign through social networking websites. The campaign is to demand that sections 354 and 509 of the Indian Penal Code must be made stronger. At present offences such as eve teasing and sexual harassment are bailable.
"This is one of the major reasons why offenders soon turn out to be habitual offenders--which were clearly seen during the incident which eventually took the lives of Reuben and Keenan. The offenders went to an extent of killing those who opposed them. Hence we want the offence to be declared as a non-bailable offence," an activist said.
We were preparing a petition with at least on lakh signatures to be sent to Home Minister R R Patil, he added.
Family members of both the victims did not participate in the march.
On October 20, Reuben (28) and Keenan (25) were attacked with choppers by a group of four, after the duo objected to their alleged acts of indecent behaviour against their women companions. Keenan died on the spot, while Rueben died in a hospital on last Monday.
The victims along with five others, including three girls, had gone to a bar to have dinner. After a while, they came out of the restaurant and were standing near a pan-shop, when the incident had occurred, police had said.
(With additional inputs from PTI)
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