Raped by two men early this year, a 37-year-old woman’s story of her struggle for justice will leave you shaken and livid. The incident not only highlights the failure of the erstwhile Samajwadi Party government in controlling the deteriorating law and order situation, particularly the safety of women, it also exposes how the people responsible for the upkeep of the law and order machinery exploited it to the fullest.
According to police, on February 12, the woman was gang-raped by two men, one of whom was an acquaintance. The incident happened when she had gone to visit a relative and was on her way back to Rampur city. The two offered her a lift, dropped her home and later gang-raped her at gunpoint when they found she was alone in the house.
What was shocking was that when she approached the local police for help, it was denied. The police had refused to lodge an FIR and it was only when she approached a local court a week later that a case was registered.
On February 21, the two men, identified as Ameer Ahmad (55) and Sattar Ahmad (45), were booked under IPC’s sections 376 (D) (gangrape), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
However, the ordeal didn’t end there. What came as a bigger shock to her was when she approached the investigating officer (IO) at Rampur’s Ganj police station for help. She told him that her rapists were roaming freely and that she feared for her life. According to a Times of India report, instead of acting against the accused, the officer asked her to first have sex with him if she wanted him to take action against her tormentors.
When she refused, the sub-inspector Jai Prakash Singh filed a closure report. “My ordeal began soon afterwards. Whenever I approached SI Jai Prakash Singh seeking arrest of the accused, he would say he first wanted to have sex with me. He even called up on my mobile phone and invited me to visit him in his room alone. When I turned him down, he filed a closure report in the case a fortnight ago,” said the woman.
“He would ask about the rape sequence time and again, posing objectionable questions on the details. Then he told me, 'Tum pahley meri hasrat puri karo, tab mulzim pakday jayenge' (First you fulfil my desire, I will then arrest the accused),” she added.
The woman, however, didn’t give up and approached the officer again. However, this time, she planned to record the conversations she had with him. The officer’s demand remained the same.
Armed with proof, she then approached the Superintendent of Police (SP) on Wednesday with the audio, following which an inquiry has now been ordered against the IO.
“Ganj station officer has been asked to investigate the matter against the SI and submit a report,” Additional Superintendent of Police Sudha Singh was quoted by Times of India as saying.
