In connection with the alleged July 21 gangrape, involving two minors (cousins aged around 15 years) at Bajpur in Udham Singh Nagar district, police arrested eight of the nine accused on Saturday. The case had been registered on Thursday after the alleged survivors had informed their family members of the incident.
According to the survivors, nine people, all adults, had raped them at a sugarcane field in Beriya Daulat village in Bajpur under Udham Singh Nagar district on July 21. After conducting thorough investigation of the case, the district police have claimed to have arrested eight people involved in it on Saturday.
Police have recovered mobile phones having video footages of the incident, said Bajpur police station in-charge BS Chauhan. The accused have been identified as Bajpur residents Sanjay, Vijay, Tula Singh, Vijay Guman Singh, Mukesh, Bablu, Arjun, Chand and Raju. One of the accused identified as Bhajan is still absconding, he said, adding that the arrested accused had been sent to jail after being produced in the court.
Police sources said that despite the incident having occurred on July 21, the probe had started late as the victims had informed their family members days after it happened. “Soon after the case was registered on Thursday a team at the police station level was formed at the direction of SSP to investigate it,” he added.
The crime had allegedly occurred when both the girls were passing through a sugarcane field in the adjacent village. As per the complaint lodged, some youths had made lewd comments on the duo to which they had raised protest. The enraged youths had allegedly forced them into the sugarcane fields and gang- raped them.
The complaint further stated that the criminals had made video clips of the incident and warned the victims of dire consequences if they informed police or their family members.
The accused had also threatened that they would attach these video footages on social networking sites to defame them. The duo had refrained from informing their parents of the incident in fear of being ‘exposed’ on the social networking sites. However, seeing them suppressing something serious, as their family members had pressured them the girls had broken down and narrated what had happened to them. This was followed by the complaint being lodged in the Bajpur police station. Medical examinations of the alleged survivors had been conducted following which a case under Section 376d of IPC and Sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act had been lodged in the police station.