A 13-year-old Dalit rape survivor in Uttar Pradesh, India was allegedly raped again by the station house officer (SHO) when she went to the police station to file a complaint against four men who kidnapped and gangraped her.
The incident came to light during counseling by an NGO after which a case was lodged in Lalitpur on Tuesday May 3.
According to the complaint filed by the mother of the girl, her daughter was abducted on April 22 by Chandan, Rajbhan, Harishankar and Mahendra Chaurasia, who took her to Madhya Pradesh in Bhopal where she was repeatedly raped by all the four accused for 4 days.
The girl was brought back on April 26 and dumped in front of Pali police station by the accused. She was later handed over to her aunt.
A day later, the police called the girl to the police station to record her statement. In the evening, the girl’s aunt took her to the station house officer, Tilakdhari Saroj’s room, where he raped her, the complaint has alleged.
Once again, the girl was handed back to her aunt and her parents were allegedly kept in the dark.
On April 30, the police handed the girl over to the Childline team for counselling and she narrated her ordeal. The NGO then contacted her parents.
An FIR was lodged on Tuesday against six persons, including the police officer and victim’s aunt under section 363, 376, 376-B, 120-B IPC, section 3, 4 POCSO and section 3(2)(V) SC/ST act.
The police have arrested four of the accused including the officer after an FIR was registered against five people.
The police officer who was absconding was arrested from Pragyagraj on Thursday morning, May 5.
“The aunt and three men have been arrested. Raids are on to trace the other accused,” said Lalitpur’s superintendent of police Nikhil Pathak.
“It is part of our investigation to find out why the rape case was not filed when the victim reached the police station for the first time.”
