Gang rape added to FIR later, UP police say it was clerical mistake

BULANDSHAHR: The original computerised FIR lodged in the Bulandshahr case mentioned rape, dacoity and illegal confinement, which police attributed to a clerical mistake. Sections of gang-rape and the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) were added later by a pen, the victim’s family said.

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A family of six from Noida was waylaid by highway robbers who gang-raped two of the female members in the fields along NH-91 on the intervening night of July 29-30.

After the incident, an FIR was lodged at Kotwali Dehat in Bulandshahr.

“Previously, only section 376 (rape) was typed along with other sections of dacoity and illegal confinement. When we asked the investigating officer, he said “galti se ho gaya” (it happened by mistake). Then they wrote ‘D’ after section 376 and manually wrote POSCO to the FIR columns. Now, we will have to get a fresh copy of the FIR,” said the uncle of the minor.

The victim’s family said they were given a copy of the FIR only when a National Commission for Women (NCW) team arrived to inquire about the incident.

The original FIR only had IPC sections of 395, 397, 342 and 376 typed in the FIR format. Later, the police added ‘D’ after section 376 and added POCSO to the FIR columns with a pen.

Pankaj Kumar Pandey, superintendent of police (rural) said, “It could be a clerical mistake. The sections were added manually to the FIR.”

Man Singh Chauhan, superintendent of police (city), the officer under whose the Kotwali Dehat police station falls, blamed the software.

“The software used for preparing the FIR may not have been updated with proper Acts. But a proper FIR has been lodged in the case. There is nothing to conceal nor any minimisation (dilution) done to the FIR. Proper sections are mentioned in the general diary,” Chauhan said.

Later on Tuesday evening when senior superintendent of police Anees Ahmad Ansari took charge, he said the matter would be taken up seriously.

NCW member, Rekha Sharma, who met the family with a team on July 31, said she would send a report to the NCW chairperson. The report will later be sent to the UP government.