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Rape survivor’s father dies by suicide in UP, 2 cops suspended
Soon after the alleged suicide, the deceased’s family held a protest alleging that the police did not take timely action on the man’s complaint.
A 38-year-old man on Monday committed suicide allegedly over the delay by the police in probing the gangrape of his15-year-old daughter at a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Jalaun district under Ait police station limits, police said on Tuesday. A station house officer and sub-inspector were suspended in connection with the incident, police said.
Soon after the alleged suicide, the deceased’s family and neighbours held a protest alleging that the police did not take timely action on the man’s complaint.
Providing details, Uttar Pradesh police special director general (special DG) (law and order) Prashant Kumar said Jalaun superintendent of police Iraj Raja had been directed to take “stringent action against the cops responsible for the delay in registering the FIR”.
He said station in-charge Nagendra Pratap Gautam and sub-inspector Ashok Kumar have been suspended. “We are monitoring the case and a report has been sought from the SP in the matter. Police have been directed to register a separate case in connection with the suicide,” Kumar added. No suicide note has been found, said police.
According to police, on March 28 the girl was gang-raped by two accused by Golu and Devendra Kumar in connivance with the latter’s wife Laxmi on the pretext of taking her to a birthday party. She managed to escape and on March 30 narrated the ordeal to her parents, who worked as street vendors in Punjab, over the phone. The girl was staying in UP with her grandmother. Upon returning to Jalaun on May 30, they approached the police on May 31 to register an FIR into the matter. When the man and his daughter visited the Ait police station, the officials there allegedly threatened to frame him in the case instead, police said.
An FIR into the assault was finally lodged only on June 4 a day after the survivor’s father lodged a complaint against the local cops on the Uttar Pradesh chief minister’s Jansunwai online portal.
Jalaun superintendent of police Iraj Raja said: “An FIR under Sections 376-D (gang rape), 506 (criminal intimidation) and under provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act was registered against Golu, 22, and Devendra, 32, and his wife Laxmi, 29, on Sunday.”
“Key accused, Golu, is already lodged in the Jalaun district jail while the couple was arrested on Monday,” he said, adding that the police would be seeking Golu’s custody in the gang rape case.
Meanwhile, after the alleged suicide, the survivor’s family alleged that police did not take timely action on the complaint following which the girl’s father hanged himself from a tree on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday. They said he was not aware that his complaint had been registered on Sunday night itself. The survivor’s mother alleged that the officials did not take action on their complaint and instead forced them to take back the case. She said that they then approached the SP who asked them to go back to the Ait police station.
The SP has directed Konch circle officer Shailendra Kumar Bajpai to probe both the cases.
