Minor’s gangrape: 3 held, inspector, ASI suspended

police on Thursday arrested the three accused in the Bholath minor gangrape case and suspended inspector Sukhpal Singh and assistant sub-inspector Raghubir Singh for ‘inaction’.

The victim was allegedly kidnapped from Gadeyipur village in Jalandhar district by three youths in September last year and gangraped for over five months at Bholath where she was kept in captivity.

A case was registered on Wednesday against Deepak Singh, Jiwan Singh and Sajan Singh, all residents of Bholath, under Sections 376-D (gangrape), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement) and Sections 4, 6 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.

The suspended cops would also face a departmental inquiry in the case. Inspector Sukhpal was SHO of Maqsudan police station when the girl’s family had filed a complaint after the kidnapping.

The action against the cops has been taken on the basis of the report of Kartarpur deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Arvind Puri, who was asked to probe into the matter by senior superintendent of police (SSP) Gurpreet Singh Bhullar.

SSP Bhullar confirmed the suspension of the cops for delaying the registration of FIR. DSP Puri told HT that there was negligence on the part of police in acting on the complaint. He, however, said the allegations of graft against the cops were baseless.

Meanwhile, the victim, who is 22 weeks’ pregnant, underwent a medical examination at the civil hospital here on Thursday. The doctors also took her blood and other samples for DNA testing.

VICTIM NARRATES HARROWING TALE

In the FIR accessed by HT, the victim told the accused kept her at a house in Bholath for over five months and used to give her intoxicants before raping her. The accused also applied ‘sindoor’ in her hair partition and called her Draupadi. “I pleaded several times before them to release me, but to no avail,” she said.

Speaking to HT, victim’s father said he begged with folded hands before the police to lodge a complaint when his daughter was kidnapped on September 14 last year. He claimed he even filed a complaint on 181 helpline but nothing happened.