Rampur case: Two more held

BAREILLY: The UP police arrested two more accused in the Rampur harassment incident during raids on Monday.

“Both accused were arrested by our search teams in separate raids in Tanda area,” said SP Rampur Vipin Tada adding, “Both are minors.”

With this, the total number of arrests in the case in which two women were molested by a group of men and a video made has gone up to five.

An FIR has been registered against a total of 14 persons in the case.

On Sunday, police had arrested a minor and a man who allegedly filmed the two women being molested by the group. Police also managed to trace the two women, who were to undergo a medical examination on Monday.

“Saddam is the one who shot the video on his phone and circulated it,” Tada said on Monday.

The main accused, Shahnawaz Qadri, was arrested on Saturday night, hours after the video was widely shared online.

The three-minute footage shows the men surrounding the women and groping them on a roadside near a poplar plantation.

The date of the incident is not known but police hope to get more details now that they have tracked the victims.

In Lucknow, ADG (Law and Order) Aditya Mishra on Monday dubbed the incident ‘sad’, while saying that the police would ensure that such misconduct was not repeated in future.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh forest minister Dara Singh Chauhan said in Muzaffarnagar the recent spurt in crimes in the state indicates a “conspiracy to defame” the Adityanath Yogi-led government.

Soon after the Yogi government took charge in March, it announced the setting up of “Anti-Romeo” squads to battle crimes against women.