From refusing to register rape cases, cops in Uttar Pradesh have got into the heinous act themselves. Two policemen were allegedly involved in the rape of a middle-aged married woman in Ghosi town of Mau district, about 400 km from Lucknow, taking Wednesday's reported rape cases in Uttar Pradesh to three.
According to the First Information Report lodged with the Mau police on Wednesday, 38-year old Manisha was having dinner with two relatives at some Maurya hotel in Ghosi town on the night of June 20, when they had some altercation with the hotel owner, who instantly called the police.
Together with two cops, the hotel owner beat up Manisha's relatives and threw them out of the hotel while they dragged her into a hotel room where she was gang-raped by both of them, the report alleged.
In the middle of the night, the two cops took the woman to the house of a friend bus conductor near the local roadways bus station, where the conductor also joined them to rape the woman again.
It was on the night of June 21 that she was abandoned on the roadside in Kopaganj town about 8 km from Mau.
Initially, the cops refused to register her case and dismissed the woman as one of "loose character." It was only after the woman's tale of woe was highlighted in the local media that the district police chief intervened in the matter and got the FIR lodged.
Confirming the report, Mau superintendent of police Onkar Singh told this scribe over telephone, "We have registered a case of rape against the cops as well as the hotel owner and the bus conductor."
He identified the bus conductor as Shiv Kumar but refused to disclose the name of the hotel owner or the constables.
Two more rapes, an attempted rape
Twenty-year old Pushpa was raped by three men from her own village when she stepped out of her home in Kanch, which falls under Khanpur police circle in Bulandshahr district, about 400 km from Lucknow, on Tuesday night.
Bulandshahr Senior Superintendent of police R K S Rathore told this scribe over telephone, "The woman had gone to answer the nature's call, when she was dragged to the nearby sugarcane fields, where she was gang-raped and strangulated to death."
He said, "Her body was recovered after her father Vijay Pal went about searching for her when she did not return."
Of the three persons named by the father in the First Information Report, Sunil and Narendra were arrested while a manhunt was launched for Bhola, who was still at large.
The other incident was reported from Naubatpur village under Safipur police circle of Unnao district. "Sixteen-year-old Sushila was alone in her home in Naubatpur village on Wednesday morning when a neighbour's relative Mukesh sneaked inside and raped her," Unnao Superintendent of police R.K.Shukla told mediapersons.
He said, "We have arrested Mukesh and have booked him for the crime."
However, a teenaged girl managed to resist a rape bid in Lagucha village in Lakhimpur-Kheri district.
"Fifteen-year-old Anita was stalked by a neighbor Akru Yadav, when she went to the fields to answer the nature's call on Wednesday morning. Yadav tried to overpower the girl and even tore off her clothes, but the girl fought bravely and kept on screaming for help until other villagers reached the spot and saved her", Lakhimpur-Kheri SP Amit Chandra said.
"However, the culprit managed to escape. But we have registered a case of attempted rape against him and I am sure we will get him soon", he added.
