If shooting an innocent Apple executive in Lucknow was not enough, the Mandi police station cops of Saharanpur seem to have vowed to further embarass the UP Police brass by offering cash to a rape victim and ‘broker a truce’ with the perpetrators.
Incidentally, the accused are the parents-in-law and brother-in-law of the victim. What is more, despite nine days since registration of the case, the victim was neither medically examined nor her statement recorded, leave alone arrest the accused.
Repeated efforts to contact ADG (Meerut Zone) Prashant Kumar failed to elicit any response till late Tuesday night. DGP OP Singh was also intimated about the grotesque stand of investigating officer Sachin Sharma and the police apathy in arresting the accused, but nothing worthwhile came out.
As per reports, Gulfam (name changed) of Behat got maried to Haris of Kamela area of Mandi police station area two years back. Right from the start, her father-in-law Irshad started making advances towards her. On complaining to her husband, the woman was asked to stay silent ‘keeping family honour in mind’.
Uanble to take Irshad’s growing advances quietly, she chose to return to her family. Later, her in-laws and some common friends coaxed her to return to her in-laws’ place on September 24.
On September 30, Irshad allegedly forced himself on her while her husband Haris was out to work. When the victim complained to her mother-in-law Fatima, she was asked to keep quiet. When the victim made it clear that she would complain to the police, Fatima called her younger son Israr and the duo forced her to drink a poisonous liquid.
The victim ran out of the house and collapsed after traversing a short distance. Her neighbours later rushed her to a hospital from wher she was referred to a higher centre for treatment. Her family was informed by a neighbour after which they rushed to the hospital.
On October 1, the victim’s brother lodged an FIR with Mandi police station after which a case (Crime No 622/18) under sections of rape, criminal intimidation and causing hurt by poison was registered against Irshad, Fatima and their younger son Israr.
Despite the heinous charges, investigating officer and sub-inspector Sachin Sharma did not get the vicitim medically examined and get her statement recorded before a magistrate. Instead, soon after registration of the case, Sharma called the victim to the police station on consecutive days and pressured her to thrash out a compromise offering to mediate and also offered Rs one lakh as compensation.