Cops likely to apply in court for collecting DNA samples of two accused in Ayodhya gangrape case
A senior police official said the DNA sample of the foetus has been preserved as per legal proceedings. Minor rape survivor has been under treatment at a hospital in Lucknow since Monday for better care
LUCKNOW The Ayodhya Police is likely to file an application in a competent court on Saturday to collect DNA samples of the two men accused of gang-rape with a 15-year-old girl, who is undergoing treatment in a Lucknow hospital for the past four days, said police officials. Samples of the two accused, including a local Samajwadi Party leader Moid Khan and his bakery employee Raju Khan, will be collected in the Ayodhya jail where they are lodged after their arrest on July 30.
The minor rape survivor, who was allegedly impregnated by the accused, has been under treatment at the Queen Mary Hospital, which is a part of King George’s Medical University (KGMU) in Lucknow, since Monday for better care. She underwent an abortion in Lucknow after she and her family gave a written consent to the Ayodhya child welfare committee for the termination of pregnancy. She may be discharged later this week, said doctors.
A senior police official said the DNA sample of the foetus has been preserved as per legal proceedings.
DNA sampling is a strong tool, and it could help in conviction of the accused even in decades-old crimes, said GK Goswami, director of UP State Institute of Forensic Sciences (UPSIFS).
Citing an example, another police official said two brothers - Naqi Hasan, 55, and Guddu, 52 - were sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment in a similar case in Shahjahanpur in May this year. The incident occurred when the rape survivor was merely 12 years old in 1996, but the case was lodged at Sadar police station on March 5, 2021, on a local court’s intervention when the woman’s son, born out of rape, filed an application to get the FIR registered.
He said the woman’s son got his DNA sampling done with the two accused, and it matched with one of the accused. The court convicted the two accused under IPC Section 376 for rape and sentenced them in the matter.
The Ayodhya gang-rape incident came to light when the victim’s family discovered that she was pregnant and they approached police to lodge FIR against the two accused in the matter in July last week. SSP (Ayodhya) Raj Karan Nayyar had informed that Moid Khan initially raped the girl and recorded the assault. “Over the next two and a half months, Khan continued to sexually abuse her, using the video to intimidate and threaten her. Khan committed these acts with the assistance of his employee Raju Khan.”