Five cops suspended, two of the accused known to police
BHOPAL: Five policemen were suspended on Friday on charges of dereliction of duty in the case of gang rape of a 19-year-old woman in the state capital on Tuesday.
Authorities suspended the officers in charge of GRP, MP Nagar and Habibganj stations along with two sub-inspectors.
The incident occurred between 7 and 10pm on Tuesday when the victim, a civil services aspirant and daughter of an ASI of the Railway Protection Force (RPF), was returning from her coaching classes. Police said she was accosted by two inebriated men near the Habibganj railway station, who first snatched her mobile phone and money and then raped her. They were joined by two more men who also raped the woman. They later strangulated her, assumed her to be dead and fled the crime scene.
However, the victim regained consciousness and managed to reach the RPF police station, where she borrowed a phone from one of the personnel and called her father.
Initially, she told her parents that she had been looted and beaten but on reaching home in Vidisha, she narrated the ordeal to them.
The woman and her parents came to Bhopal the next morning but they were made to shuttle from one police station to another before police finally registered the case almost 12 hours later, even though the woman’s father had managed to nab one of the accused on his own. Since the man was earlier posted in the same RPF station, he took his daughter to the slum where the accused lived. The woman identified one of the accused and her father immediately caught him and took him to the police station.
Meanwhile, sources said two of the three arrested men were known to the local police. While one of them helped GRP personnel remove bodies from tracks, the other was an informer.
The duo and their accomplices — one of whom is a murder accused — used to spend hours consuming liquor and drugs in the bushes near the railway station, the sources said. Of the three accused arrested so far, one was sent to two-day police remand, while two others were sent to judicial custody. A special investigation team (SIT) was also formed to investigate the case.
Taking cognizance of the case, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan held a meeting with senior officials concerned and reportedly pulled them up on the law and order situation.
He also announced that the trial in the case would be conducted in a fast-track court.
ANOTHER SHOCKER IN MP, 14-YEAR- OLD RAPED
BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh police registered a case of gang rape against three youth for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl in Agar Malwa district.
The incident came to light when the parents of the girl filed a complaint. Avinash Shrivastava, in charge of Kotwali police station, said a 19-year-old youth, along with his two friends, lured the minor girl to the house of one of his friends, which was vacant, on Tuesday. “He raped the girl, while the other two guarded the house.” All three have been arrested.