AMN / WEB DESK
The police officer who was accused of raping a minor gang-rape victim has been arrested in Prayagraj, ADG Prem Prakash said. A teenage girl who was gang-raped by four men over three days had come to the police station to file a complaint and was again sexually assaulted by the SHO Tilakdhari Saroj in Uttar Pradesh’s Lalitpur area.
The apex child rights body NCPCR on Wednesday said it will deploy a team to Lalitpur to probe the alleged sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl by four men over three days and again by the SHO of a police station where she had been left by her attackers.
Taking a strong view of the incident, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) chairperson Priyank Kanoongo said the case has been taken very seriously. “I have formed a joint team after discussing with the chairman of the State Children’s Commission, Devendra Sharma, which will visit Lalitpur tomorrow and collect the facts after meeting the victim and the family,” he tweeted.
According to the mother of the multiple-rape survivor, her daughter was taken to Bhopal on April 22 by four men and raped there for three days. The men left the girl at the Pali police station, where she was again sexually attacked, she alleged.
The girl reached a childline NGO later and narrated the whole incident during counseling. The NGO approached the Superintendent of Police, after whose intervention, an FIR was registered on Tuesday. “The police have arrested three accused, while attempts are on to nab others, including the SHO,” Superintendent of Police Nikhil Pathak said.
NHRC issued notices to the Chief Secretary and the Director-General of Police, Uttar Pradesh and sought a report within 4-weeks.
Several opposition leaders including Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, and Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi condemned the incident and slammed the ruling BJP state government in UP. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is expected to go to Lalitpur to meet the rape survivor’s family.
Attacking the state government in a series of tweets, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, “The incident of gangrape with a 13-year-old girl in Lalitpur and then rape by a police officer after taking a complaint shows how the real reforms of law and order are being suppressed in the noise of “bulldozer”. If police stations are not safe for women, where will they go with their complaints.” To prevent such incidents, serious steps should be taken for women’s safety and a women-friendly law system, she added.