New Delhi: The Supreme Court directed the Delhi Police to step up its preventative measures in the national capital to combat crimes against women, saying that every women must feel safe even when walking or travelling alone at night.“Every girl who is molested is our sister, our mother. It is a huge challenge for the police department of NCT Delhi. Don’t allow such things to happen,” the bench ruled.A bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K. Vinod Chandran, hearing a suo motu case on recent rape incidents in the national capital region (NCR) on Monday (October 5), told the police that they needed to be “very harsh” against offenders committing such crimes, with stricter measures in place.“You [Delhi Police] need to get into action. If you have to be a little more strict, a little more harsh, do not hesitate. You need to create a fright, a fear in the mind of a man who is prone to commit such offences. Unless you don’t create such fright in the minds of the criminals ki ab kuch kiya toh mar jayengey [If we commit such crimes, we will die], you will not be able to prevent such crimes,” the bench said, according to the New Indian Express.The court asserted that law enforcement agencies’ focus should remain on preventing crimes in the first place, rather than trying to do damage control after an offence has taken place.“We are in a country like India. Merely putting things on paper is not enough. You need to get into action. There will be people who will raise a hue and cry about article 21 [Right to life] but you have to do your duty,” the court said.It also asked the Delhi Police to increase surveillance across the city, especially in places where women could be the “most vulnerable,” including Delhi University’s North and South campuses.As per the report, the bench also placed emphasis on the public’s confidence in the police. It observed that citizens should not feel afraid to approach officers when they threatened and should instead be able to comfortably reach out with information and complaints.“It’s a huge task before you [Police] all. It’s a challenge. And the day you will overcome this challenge it will be a big victory for the department. People should not run away from you. They should come forward to meet you and talk to you. And your response should be such that it such repose confidence in the common man to talk to you,” the court said.The court reiterated that merely apprehending offenders was not enough as it ignored the underlying problem of poor surveillance and police protection. It ordered the police to identify vulnerable areas and ensure a visible police presence in places where women and children are particularly exposed to risk.The apex court’s latest statements come days after it ordered authorities to strengthen safety measures across the national capital after a series of reported sexual assaults.As reported by The Wire earlier, the court had taken suo motu cognisance of recent rape and assault cases in the region on September 28, including the gangrape of a minor, whose decomposing body was discovered in Delhi’s Swaroop Nagar.During its earlier hearing, the Supreme Court had said that public parks, buses, metro stations, subways and footbridges could not be allowed to become “zones of high risk” all because of inadequate patrolling and security lapses.“One cannot help but draw painful parallels to the Nirbhaya incident of 2012…These incidents considered alongside other recent reports of sexual offences across Delhi-NCR starkly underline a systematic failure on the part of the law enforcement and the public administrative authorities to guarantee basic public safety,” the court had said.