In Uttar Pradesh, Police are the biggest criminal

In yet another shocking and shameful incident, a 13-year-old gangrape survivor, who had gone to file her complaint, was allegedly raped by the in-charge of a police station in Lalitpur. The accused, Station House Officer (SHO) Tilakdhari Saroj has been suspended and later arrested and the whole of the police staff of the Pali police station has been punished and sent to lines.

This is the second incident, within a week, where the inhuman face of Uttar Pradesh police came to light. Last week, the police of Saidpur in Chandauli beat up a 21-year-old girl who later died. In a video widely shared on social media, a girl can be seen saying that her elder sister was killed by the police. On being asked if she had also been beaten up by the police, the girl replies in the affirmative.

In this incident too, the Station House Officer (SHO) of Saiyadraja police station was suspended even though the Superintendent of Police, Chandauli Ankur Aggarwal denied all the allegations saying that the girls were not beaten up. He said it was a case of suicide.

The question then rises-- if the girl died by suicide, why the SHO was suspended? Was it a ploy to allow the situation to cool down?

“These two incidents are a clear indication that the police is a bigger goonda than those whose houses are being demolished in the name of maintaining law and order. If the police stations are not safe for women then where would she go to seek justice?” said Amarnath Agarwal, a Congress leader.

Satinder Sharma, a retired IG of UP Police said nothing could be more heinous than this situation where a police officer, who is supposed to protect, and work towards delivering justice to the victim, himself rapes a minor girl in the name of investigation. “Though, I do not have the full detail of the case and know as much as has appeared in newspapers, the role of that girl’s aunty too looks fishy,” he said.

Sharma blames the 'thoko’ attitude that has crept in for such perverted tendency among the police. They have been given limitless power in the name of controlling law and order which has led to this situation.

“The police has become so insensitive that cops in Kanpur dehat beat up a man who was carrying a child in his arms during a protest. How can policeman raise baton to beat that man?,” asks retired IG.

Reports said that on Tuesday, the girl's father lodged an FIR, alleging that his daughter was lured to Bhopal by four men on April 22 and then raped for four days. He said the teenager somehow escaped and reached home and went to the police to file a complaint where the station in charge allegedly raped the teenager before handing her over to the Childline Welfare Committee.

When the teenager was questioned by the ChildLine officials, she narrated the whole incident, after which the ChildLine Welfare Committee reached out to the Lalitpur superintendent of police about the crime. Following this, the SP immediately registered a case of gangrape against six people, including SHO Tilakdhari Saroj.

Lalitpur police said they had charged Saroj for rape and under the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act.

Lenin Raghuvanshi of the People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) said everyday people are being humiliated in police stations. There are innumerable instances when police have beaten up poor people for not obeying their orders.

“People are not getting justice at police stations. This is a fact that women fear going to police stations after dusk and even in broad daylight, women avoid going there despite being accompanied by some male member of the family,” Raghuvanshi said.