Jaipur woman seeks penalty for ‘rapist’ cop

Taking heart from the media attention the Ruchika molestation case has got, a 40-year-old woman from Rajasthan’s Dausa district is demanding that her alleged rapist, a former deputy inspector general (DIG) of Rajasthan Police, be brought to justice.

Taking heart from the media attention the Ruchika molestation case has got, a 40-year-old woman from Rajasthan’s Dausa district is demanding that her alleged rapist, a former deputy inspector general (DIG) of Rajasthan Police, be brought to justice.

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The victim, Shanti Devi (name changed), sat on a dharna at the rail tracks near Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s residence in Jaipur on Tuesday, demanding that the former DIG, Madhukar Tandon, who is absconding, be put behind bars.

The victim’s husband, a former constable, was Tandon’s attendant when she was allegedly raped in January 1997.

Shanti Devi was allegedly abducted from Jaipur and taken to Noida in Uttar Pradesh where she was raped by Tandon, then posted at the police headquarters in Jaipur.

Four state governments have come and gone since then, but the police have not been able to trace Tandon despite an arrest warrant against him. “Now, the punishment given to a Haryana top cop gives us hope,” Shanti Devi’s husband said, referring to former DGP S.P.S Rathore, who was given six months in jail for molesting Ruchika.

Dausa MP Kirori Lal Meena, who sat on dharna with the victim, her husband and other members of the Meena community, said: “Tandon could not be nabbed because of a nexus between politicians and bureaucrats.”

Tandon went missing in 1998 and was subsequently declared a proclaimed offender.