The Supreme Court on Wednesday demanded explanation over the tragic detention of a 10-year-old rape victim by Uttar Pradesh police at a time when women cops were on duty at the station in Bulandshahr. The court will hear the matter on Monday.
The victim had approached the police to lodge a complaint along with her mother. Instead of registering the complaint, the girl was kept inside the lockup of the Mahila Thana the entire night. As luck could have it, a local TV channel filmed the girl in prison causing the country to know about the shocking insensitivity of the UP Police.
The shocking insensitivity of the cops led the bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir to question, “How can the police detain a 10-year-old girl”. Taking suo motu cognizance of the incident, the bench directed the UP Government and UP Police to give a response by Monday.
A similar incident, incidentally also from Uttar Pradesh, had engaged the attention of the apex court in September 2011. The court had ordered a CBI probe into an incident involving a former BSP MlA who had sexually assaulted a minor girl in Banda district of UP. Instead of catching the guilty, the police locked the victim in jail for one month accusing her falsely of stealing at the MlA’s residence.
Timely intervention by the apex court led the cops to withdraw the case and proceed against the guilty cops. Favouring an independent probe, the apex court directed CBI case to be registered against the accused MlA and sought investigation on the role of the cops.
No lessons seem to have been learnt from the Banda case as the latest incident suggests. Since the incident came to light, two women constables on duty were suspended while the Mahila Thana in-charge Gayashree Chauhan and sub-inspector Sarita Dwivedi, were removed. On Tuesday, the Bulandshahr police claimed they had arrested the
accused too.