PATNA: The in-charge of a woman police station in Patna was placed under suspension on Tuesday for not taking any action even after receiving a complaint that a five-year-old girl was raped.
Bihar’s DIGP (central range) Rajesh Kumar said Bibha Kumari, the SHO of women’s police station at Patna’s Gardanibag, was placed under suspension for grave dereliction of duty.
“The police officer was found to have failed to do her basic duties after receiving a complaint that a five-year-old girl was gang-raped. She neither registered an FIR, and nor did she get the victim medically examined,” said Rajesh Kumar. A probe later found that it was rape and not a gang-rape as initially claimed.
The five-year-old girl was allegedly lured out of her house by a man living nearby on the pretext of being given a chocolate on Friday afternoon. The accused, identified as Amar Kumar, allegedly raped the girl in presence of at least two of his friends beside the railway tracks, said police sources.
As she bled profusely after the act, the three men rushed her to a private hospital at nearby Rajapur and informed her mother that the girl suddenly fell sick. The accused then threatened the girl’s parents of dire consequences if they reported the matter to anyone.
Even though the girl’s father, a carpenter hailing from Naubatpur near Patna, mustered courage and reached Gardanibag police station on Sunday morning to lodge a complaint, the SHO Bibha Kumari allegedly did not register a case.
“Although the SHO visited the girl’s house in the afternoon and spoke to her parents, she did not register an FIR and did not send the victim for a medical test. The SHO also misguided DSP (secretariat) RK Prabhakar on the case details,” said a police officer.
Taking note of willful negligence in another case, DIGP Rajesh Kumar had on Monday placed two policemen under suspension for sending a couple to jail in a fake case. After the couple was sent to jail, their rival occupied the house and looted the belongings allegedly in connivance with police.
The SHO of Bahadurpur police station in Patna City, Krishna Kumar Gupta, and sub-inspector Sudhanshu Shekhar were sent to the police lines after the suspension.