SHO arrested for sexually assaulting gang-rape survivor in Uttar Pradesh

A Station House Officer was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl who was left outside his police station in Uttar Pradesh’s Lalitpur by four men after they raped her for three days, officials said on Wednesday.
The SHO was arrested from an area near the Allahabad High Court, they said, adding that five others, including the girl’s aunt and the four men who had lured her to Bhopal and raped her, have been arrested.
All the other policemen of the Pali station in Lalitpur district have been taken away from active duty and sent to police lines.
Police sources said the girl was lured to Bhopal, about 240 km from Lalitpur, by four men who allegedly raped her for three days and then left her near the police station.
SHO Tilakdhari Saroj handed the victim over to her aunt but later on the pretext of recording her statement, called her again to the police station and allegedly raped her on its premises, they said.
Deputy Inspector General (DIG), Jhansi, Jogendra Kumar has been asked to probe the matter and submit the report within 24 hours, officials said. The DIG has been told to stay in Lalitpur till the case is solved, ADG (Law and Order) Prasant Kumar said in Lucknow.
The National Human Rights Commission also issued notices to UP chief secretary and the Director General of Police and asked them to submit a report in this regard within four weeks.
A senior police official said since the SHO was absconding, first a man close to him was arrested and following his intense questioning, the accused officer was nabbed.
As chilling details of the case came to light, the opposition Samajwadi Party, BSP and the Congress highlighted the vulnerability of women and asked where they should go to file their complaint and whom should they trust.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav also visited Lalitpur and met the rape survivor at the district hospital.
Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak, however, said strict action will be taken and the stringent National Security Act will be slapped against the accused. The parents of the victim are labourers.
The mother of the multiple-rape survivor also alleged that her daughter was taken to Bhopal by four men and raped there for three days after which they left her near the Pali police station, where she was again sexually attacked.
The girl narrated her ordeal during counselling at an NGO, which approached the superintendent of police. Following his intervention, an FIR was registered on Tuesday.
Hitting out at the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government over the incident, Samajwadi Party said in a tweet in Hindi, “The biggest question in the BJP government is whom to trust and whom to not. A minor who reached the police station to file rape complaint was raped by the SHO himself.
Hitting out at 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 under the noise of “bulldozer”. If police stations are not safe for women, where will they go with their complaints?”
“Has the UP government seriously thought about increasing the deployment of women in police stations, making them safer for women? The Congress party had in its women’s manifesto made many important points for women security..Today its Lalitpur…”, she said.
BSP supremo Mayawati in a tweet said, “The incident of gang-rape of a minor girl by the police at Pali police station in Lalitpur is very shameful. The government should take this matter seriously and take strict action against the culprits, this is the demand of the BSP.”
Meanwhile, Pathal told reporters in Lucknow that the matter will be taken up in a fast track court.