Self-immolation outside SC: 2 cops suspended in UP

The case, which also involves forgery and concealing her age, was registered in November 2020 on the order of a court in Varanasi and was investigated by Yadav, said police.

A day after a woman, who had accused Ghosi MP Atul Rai of sexual assault in May 2019, and a man set themselves on fire outside the Supreme Court, two cops, including Varanasi Cantt SHO Rakesh Singh and sub-inspector Girija Shankar Yadav, were suspended on Tuesday and departmental action initiated against them for not properly compiling evidence in another cheating case involving the woman.

Delhi Police Crime Branch Team conducts an investigation at a site where a woman and a man allegedly set themselves on fire in front of Supreme Court gate number D, which has been cordoned off, in New Delhi (ANI Photo)

The case, which also involves forgery and concealing her age, was registered in November 2020 on the order of a court in Varanasi and was investigated by Yadav, said police.

Another officer, Vedprakash Rai, who has been made the SHO of the station, will investigate the case now, said a police officer.

Before attempting suicide, the woman, along with her associate, recorded a Facebook live video, in which she disclosed her identity and alleged that she had filed the sexual assault case against the BSP MP. She also said that some senior police officers and others were supporting the MP.

Police suspect that she attempted suicide as she feared being farmed in fraud cases levelled against her.

The MP was arrested and has been in judicial custody in the sexual assault case since the last two years. In December 2020, the woman had filed another complaint against the MP and his associate, Sudhir Singh, at Lanka police station in Varanasi, alleging that the two were defaming her and running a propaganda on social media. Thereafter, a case was registered at Lanka police station under sections of IT Act.

Meanwhile, the MP’s brother, Pawan Singh, filed an application in a court, alleging that the woman forged her date of birth to conceal her age, and urged the court to order a police case against her.

Thereafter, on the order of the court, a case was registered against the woman under sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (forgery), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code at Cantt police station in November 2020.

Later, a non-bailable warrant was issued against the woman in the first week of August this year, after the investigator informed the court that she couldn’t be located despite several visits to her house.

(with agency inputs)