Let CBI take up Bulandshahr rape, police probe unsatisfactory: HC

NEW DELHI: The Allahabad High Court on Friday ordered a CBI probe into the Bulandshahr gangrape case in which a girl and her mother were raped by a group that waylaid their car en route to Shahjahanpur along with four other family members.

The High Court ordered the CBI probe after observing that the police investigation so far was unsatisfactory.

The High Court, which had taken suo motu cognisance of the July 29 incident, also said it intended to “monitor the investigation into the case”. A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice D B Bhosale and Justice Yashwant Varma passed the order a day after the state government submitted a status report on the investigation into the incident in a sealed cover.

“We are not satisfied, neither with the way the investigation appears to be taking place nor with the material that has been placed on record,” the court said and directed the state government to produce the FIR lodged in connection with the crime, the rape victims’ medical reports and statements of witnesses by the next date of hearing on August 17.

The court also expressed dissatisfaction with details of the social background, criminal records and political affiliations — if any — which had been provided in the status report as per its earlier order, dated August 8, which was the first date of hearing on the matter.

Significantly, the court had made it clear at the outset that it intended to “monitor the investigation into the case” and not dispose of the matter which is being heard as a Public Interest Litigation, titled In the matter of rape of mother and daughter at NH 91. The incident took place when six members of a Noida-based family were travelling to Shahjahanpur in UP. At the National Highway passing through Bulandshahr, their car was stopped by criminals who dragged the 13-year-old girl and her mother out and raped them in a field nearby.

Expressing its anguish over the incident, the court had also sought to know from the state government what steps it was taking to prevent such incidents and pointed out that the state was duty-bound to ensure the safety and security of those who travel on highways in its territory.

The incident evoked a huge outcry and received widespread criticism over the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh.

The father of the family had reached out to the political top brass of the state earlier, saying that the family had been ostracised and had no option but to commit suicide if the perpetrators were not punished soon.

Minor gangraped

A 15-year-old girl was allegedly drugged and gangraped after being abducted by three persons in Uttar Pradesh’s Loni area, police said. The victim’s father said in the complaint that she was made unconscious by using chloroform drug and abducted by one Dilshad alias Diloo.