Attack on Rae Bareli woman, daughter: Attempt to murder charge dropped against 3 accused; IG orders probe

Rae Bareli police dropped an attempted-murder charge against three men accused of attacking a woman and her daughter; their bail and case handling face scrutiny.

Rae Bareli police have dropped the attempt to murder charge against three men accused of attacking a woman and her 12-year-old daughter in Jagatpur area on Wednesday even as the accused secured bail from an SDM court on Friday amid allegations that police failed to disclose that two of them were wanted in a separate case involving an assault on a Dalit woman and her family.

IG, Lucknow range, Kiran S said he would personally review the case and have an officer from another district investigate it. (For Representation)

The attacked woman’s family had helped a Dalit woman and her relatives get an FIR registered against a village pradhan and his two sons over an alleged assault on Tuesday.

Inspector general of police, Lucknow range, Kiran S said he would personally review the case and have an officer from another district investigate it. The decision to assign the probe to an officer from outside Rae Bareli comes amid questions over the alteration of charges, the disputed medical report and the handling of the two cases.

The complainant, Ruddhima Singh, also questioned the medical examination report cited in the accused’s remand application, alleging that she was never examined and that the document bore a forged signature.

Police initially registered an FIR against Ritesh Mishra, Satyam Mishra and Shivam Mishra under Sections 191(2), 109, 115(2), 131 and 324(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Section 109, pertaining to attempted murder, was subsequently dropped. Singh also questioned why no provision relating to the alleged attempt to abduct her daughter was invoked.

Singh alleged that the accused intercepted her car near Undwa village on Wednesday morning while she was taking her daughter to school, smashed its windows with bricks and stones, and tried to pull the girl out. When she intervened, one of the men allegedly grabbed her by the neck and attempted to strangle her.

The case is linked to an alleged assault on a Dalit woman and her family. Ritesh and Satyam, sons of village pradhan Ramesh Mishra, are also wanted in that case and the woman remains hospitalised, according to available information. Singh’s family alleged that the attack on them was in retaliation for helping the Dalit family approach the police and register an FIR.

Singh alleged that police did not inform the SDM court about the two accused wanted in a separate case before granting bail to all three men. She also alleged that the accused assaulted her again at Jagatpur police station when she went to report the incident and that police personnel intervened to stop them. A video of the incident circulating on social media purportedly shows the three men pelting a car with stones, but HT could not independently verify the footage.

Pradhan denies charges

When contacted over phone, village pradhan Ramesh Mishra denied the allegations, calling the cases a conspiracy to implicate him and his family in false criminal cases over a land dispute. He alleged the same Dalit woman had earlier lodged a false rape and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act cases against him.