Kin of accused seek to puncture Varanasi gang-rape survivor’s claims; SIT to probe case
Team to submit its report in 30 days; families of a number of accused allege that the woman, at times, demanded “money to omit certain names from the complaint”
VARANASI Families of a number of accused in the alleged gang-rape of a 19-year-old woman by 23 men between March 29 and April 4 here claimed on Thursday that there were inconsistencies in the survivor’s account even as an eight-member special investigation team (SIT) was constituted to investigate the case. The team will submit its report in 30 days.
The SIT comprises DCP (Varuna Zone) Pramod Kumar as its head, ADCP (Varuna Zone) Neetu, additional DCP (Crime) Shruti Srivastava, ACP (Cantt) Vidush Saxena, surveillance cell in-charge inspector DK Yadav, SOG in-charge inspector Manish Mishra, cyber cell in charge inspector MK Tiwari and head constable RK Singh, said commissioner of police (CP) Mohit Agarwal.
According to the police, the accused individuals drugged the victim and moved her between multiple hotels in the city during this period. Her family filed a police complaint on April 6. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is an MP from Varanasi, also took cognisance of the incident and directed the officials to take the strictest possible action in the case.
So far, the police have arrested 14 of the 23 accused. Agarwal said the arrest of the remaining accused has been paused, pending the outcome of the SIT probe.
Giving details about the action taken so far, the police commissioner said: “The SIT is tasked with presenting a comprehensive report within 30 days. No one -- the survivor, or the accused, will face injustice.” The police on Wednesday conducted searches at more than 100 hotels and hookah bars and questioned several suspects in wake of the recent case.
In the memorandum to the CP, family members of the accused stated that if the victim was being sexually assaulted for so many days, then why did she not go to the police. The memorandum also stated that there were no marks on the woman’s body, and this is a matter of investigation.
“If the victim had gone missing from her home on March 29, then why did the family not inform 112 helpline or the local police about her disappearance until April 4,” they questioned.
The families of a number of accused alleged that the woman had, at times, demanded “money to omit certain names from the complaint.” They claimed that most of the accused were previously connected with the victim through Instagram.
“On April 1, the victim had eaten sewain at a woman’s house. If she was being raped continuously since March 29, then how did she come here? and when the victim was recovered by the police from her friend’s house on April 4, then why did she not tell the police about the rape? were the other questions raised in the letter, police said.
“The FIR has been lodged as a part of a well-planned strategy to blackmail people and extort money. The girl’s parents were aware of her complete location, hence they did not inform the police about the victim’s disappearance from March 29 till the morning of April 4,” the kin of the accused told the CP.
“The SIT will also investigate the allegations mentioned in the application given by the family members of the accused,” said the CP.
The police had registered a case against 11 unknown and 12 named accused after the victim’s mother lodged a complaint, alleging that her daughter was gangraped by 23 people. The named accused were identified as Raj Vishwakarma, Sameer, Ayush, Sohail, Danish, Anmol, Sajid, Zahir, Imran, Jaib, Aman and Raj Khan.
