The news of brutal gangrape in Bulandshahr has come as a big jolt for the entire nation. A reality check within 48 hours of the gruesome crime showed on-duty policemen sleeping close to the crime scene, displaying why the law and order situation the state is in absolute doldrums.
Now, villagers have made some sensational revelations that show just why the UP police have failed to deliver on their objectives.
Dostpur villagers say that this was not the first case of gangrape in their village, just 12 days ago a few men had ‘brought a woman in a tempo and gangraped her late into the night’.
Rapes happen here every few months but nobody manages to muster the courage to file a report with the police, they said.
Speaking to Times of India, Devraj Thakur, former pradhan of the village, said that soon after learning about the news, they (villagers) immediately rushed to spot after which the men fled.
“The woman was distraught, dishevelled. We stopped a police vehicle passing by and handed over to them a mobile phone and some clothes that the men had left behind. The police pocketed the phone and left. They later told the woman to come to the police station. We don't know what happened to her after that. She was in a bad shape and needed help from the police,” he said.
Another villager Govindpal Singh said that crime has become rampant in their village and rapes happen here every few months.
“Everyone is not able to file a report with the police, even police don’t file cases… the dangerous stretch has become a safe haven for criminals who often target travellers,” Singh said.
Kuldeep Sharma, another resident of the village, said that all this started after the construction of the highway 18 months ago.
TOI, citing police sources, said that two similar incidents had occurred in the district on May 7 and May 12 this year.
Three suspects, arrested in the sensational Bulandshahr gang rape case, were produced before a court yesterday which sent them to 14 days judicial custody. A hunt was on for the other accused, police said, even as the victims narrated their night of horror and the "unhelpful attitude" of police.
The three suspects were identified as Shawed, a resident of Dehpa, Hapur, Rahees, a resident of Sutari, Bulandshahr and Jabar Singh, a resident of Noida.
The sensational crime, that has sparked off attacks on the state's Akhilesh Yadav government on the law and order situation, occurred near Dastampur village on National Highway-91 (Delhi-Kanpur) on Saturday night, when a gang of eight criminals stopped the car in which a family from Ghaziabad's Khoda locality to their village for some rituals following a death, robbed them and raped a woman and her daughter.
The criminals employed a unique ruse to stop the car, creating an obstacle that made it seem the car had a defect, and when the driver stopped to check, the gang members burst out and held the family at gun-point.
While one of the eight criminals put the pistol at the driver's head and took the all male members to a sugarcane field where they were kept restrained, the other accomplices took the two women - a 39-year-old and her 13-year-old daughter - to the other side and gang raped them.
The distraught father said his daughter kept crying out for help and repeating his name but he could do nothing, since he was being held at gun point. Victims saw a police patrol vehicle pass through the highway but could not shout for help due to the presence of the armed criminals.
The victims walked to the police station after covering over 5 to 6 km but police's response remained apathetic. The women were not given a proper medical treatment and there was no provision of counsellors. Police remained unhelpful throughout the entire process of legal formalities.
