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Cops promise job, rape woman in UP police station
It was the promise of a job that made Vinita (name changed), 35, a resident of Kushinagar district in eastern UP, visit the local police station. But as it turned out, she was gangraped by a group of police personnel there.
It was the promise of a job that made Vinita (name changed), 35, a resident of Kushinagar district in eastern UP, visit the local police station. But as it turned out, she was gangraped by a group of police personnel there.
The incident took place on July 17 at Khadda police station in Kushinagar district, 300 km east of Lucknow. The reluctant police filed an FIR a whole week later, following pressure from the villagers and local politicians.
Vinita’s husband works as a daily wage labourer in Gujarat. But with three children to take care of she needed to supplement the family income. And that is how she got in touch with watchman Vijay Verma.
Verma assured her that she would get a job as a watchman. And on July 17, he took her to the police station and introduced her to sub-inspector Virendra Kumar. “The sahib will give you a job after you please him,” she was told.
When she tried to leave, Kumar and Verma locked her in a room, forced her to drink liquor and raped her. Around 9 pm, she managed to slip out and telephone her husband.
“Kumar, Verma, SHO Yadvendra Pal and constables at the police station raped my wife,” Vinita's husband told HT.
On July 19, she went to the same police station to lodge a complaint. But SHO Yadvendra Pal threw her out. The next day, Pal was transferred.
When her husband returned on July 21, the two went to lodge a complaint with the new SHO Vijay Raj Singh. An FIR was finally filed on July 22.
“Vinod Kumar, the circle officer of Khadda, is probing the matter,” said Vijay Kumar Garg, superintendent of police, Kushinagar. Kumar and Verma are both absconding.
