Village head arrested for raping 19-yr-old woman in Uttarakhand district: Police

The survivor’s father filed a complaint with the revenue police against three people, including gram pradhan (village head) and two others

A village head (gram pradhan) was arrested for allegedly raping a 19-year-old woman with mental health issues in Uttarakhand’s Rudraprayag district, police said.

The accused was identified and arrested from the village on Sunday evening. (Representative file image)

The accused was identified and arrested from the village on Sunday evening, police said.

Rudraprayag superintendent of police (SP) Vishakha Ashok Bhadane said, “We arrested the accused, Bhagwan Singh, the Pradhan of the village, on Sunday evening. The search for the two others accused is on as they are absconding.”

She said, “One of the three accused is an unidentified person of Nepali origin. His identity is not clear as the girl hasn’t been able to give clear details about him.”

“We didn’t invoke gang rape charges in the FIR (first information report) as the three accused raped her on different occasions (over a period of time),” the SP added.

Sub-inspector and investigative officer (IO) Seema Chauhan told HT on Sunday, “I received the case file on Saturday and can’t give any statement about the incident before recording the statement of the survivor.”

A case in this regard was registered under section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), she said.

Narendra Singh Rawat, revenue sub-inspector, said, the survivor’s father filed a complaint with the revenue police against three people, including gram pradhan (village head) and two others.

“On August 28, the case was officially transferred to the regular police from the revenue police on the orders of district magistrate (DM) and I sent the case to the office of the superintendent of police (SP) on August 29,” he said.