Lokesh vows stringent action after chainsaw attack on Class X student in Raptadu

HRD and IT Minister Nara Lokesh has warned of stringent action against anyone harassing or misbehaving with women, asserting that attacks such as the one on a Class X student in Raptadu on Saturday would not be allowed to recur.

Mr. Lokesh visited Manipal Hospital in Bengaluru on Sunday to meet Gopika, the student who was attacked with a chainsaw by a youth while she was in her classroom at Raptadu Zilla Parishad High School. He spoke to the doctors to review her condition and the treatment being provided to her.

Recounting the sequence of events, Mr. Lokesh told the media that the attack took place around 10 a.m. when the youth entered the school premises carrying a chainsaw and assaulted the girl. “On receiving information, I immediately alerted the police and district health authorities. She was initially shifted to a government hospital, where doctors worked for nearly eight hours to stabilise her condition. Once she was fit to be shifted, she was moved to Manipal Hospital in Bengaluru,” he said.

Doctors immediately initiated treatment and performed a surgery lasting nearly 12 hours before shifting her to the intensive care unit, he added.

Mr. Lokesh said the next 48 hours would be critical and appealed to people across Andhra Pradesh to pray for her recovery. Describing Gopika as “our daughter”, he said she needed everyone’s support and prayers during this difficult time.

Assuring the family of the government’s full support, he said the incident was extremely unfortunate and should not be politicised. Ensuring the student’s treatment, continued healthcare and rehabilitation was both the government’s collective responsibility and his personal responsibility, he said. The incident had also underscored the need to further strengthen existing safety mechanisms, he added.

Mr. Lokesh said he had given his personal phone number to the girl’s father and asked him to call or message him whenever he needed assistance. He assured the family that he would stand by them in his capacity as the TDP working president and extend all necessary support.

He also promised stringent action against all those responsible for the attack and said nobody involved would be spared. Stronger preventive measures would be put in place to ensure that such incidents did not recur in the State, he added.

Meanwhile, the Education Department has constituted a special team of 20 mental health counsellors to help students who witnessed the attack and were left traumatised.

The counsellors visited the homes of all 32 students of Class X Section A, where the incident occurred, and interacted with them and their parents to address their fear and anxiety.

The department also plans to visit the homes of female students in Classes VIII, IX and X to provide counselling and help them regain their confidence.

Arrangements have been made to provide continued psychological support to the students and ensure that they return to school without fear and concentrate on their studies, officials said.