In a horrific news coming in from Uttar Pradesh’s Lalitpur, 13-year-old gangrape survivor was allegedly raped again by the in-charge of a police station, when she had gone there to register a complaint.
She was raped by four men, the teen alleged, following which she went to the police station to file a complaint along with a relative.
Station House Officer Tilakdhari Saroj, who she accused of raping her, has been suspended and a criminal case filed against him. According to a top police official in Lalitpur, the cop is on the run and three police teams are looking for him. The police have arrested three other accused.
All police personnel working at the police station, where the said incident took place, have been removed from duty. According to reports, a DIG-level officer will investigate the case and file a report within 24 hours.
On Tuesday, an FIR filed by the girl’s father stated that she was lured by four men and taken to Bhopal on April 22, where they raped her for four days. She was then allegedly brought her back to her village by the accused and dropped her at the concerned police station before escaping.
The FIR then further stated that the accused police station in-charge then handed over the girl to her aunt, and called the girl to the police station the next day for recording her statement. However, the next day, the accused police official took the girl inside a room in the police station in the presence of her aunt and raped her. The girl’s aunt has also been named as an accused in the FIR.
They have charged the official for rape and under the stringent POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act, the Lalitpur police said.
In a statement, Lalitpur police chief Nikhil Pathak said: “The SHO is suspended and he is a named criminal so we have formed teams to arrest him. An NGO brought the girl to my office. She had given them the details. After I was informed of it, I ensured that a case was filed.”
Reacting to the incident, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra slammed the state government and said the alleged rape incident shows how genuine law and order reforms are being suppressed in the noise of “bulldozers”.
“The gang-rape of a 13-year-old girl in Lalitpur and then her rape by the police in-charge when she went to file a complaint shows how genuine law and order reforms are being suppressed in the noise of “bulldozers”. If police stations are not safe for women, then where will they go to take complaints?” she said in her tweet.
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