LUCKNOW: In a shocking incident of crime against women, a Dalit family was run over by an inebriated youth who crushed two elderly women to death and injured two others during a failed attempt to molest a 22-year-old girl at Naya Gaon locality under Bulandshahr Dehat police station area late on Monday night. An FIR was lodged and accused Nakul Thakur, 30, was arrested.
As per the police sources, failing to pull the girl into his car, youth, Nakul Thakur, left the scene for a moment and came back along with his aides in the speeding vehicle and mowed down the family. The entire sequence of events was captured in a CCTV camera mounted in the locality.
According to Bulandshahr SSP N Kolanchi, the FIR was registered under sections for molestation and attempt to murder against the accused on the basis of the complaint filed by the victim family. He confirmed the arrest of the accused. The SSP added that the woman, who was targeted by the accused, claimed in her statement that she was asked by the inebriated youth to sit in the car while she was returning with her family from a marriage on Monday night. As she refused, the accused, in frustration, ran them over with his speeding car.
The SSP said that though the CCTV didn’t show molestation attempt, probe into the gruesome incident was on.
As per the details of the complaint lodged by Ramvir, a member of the victim family, at around 10 pm on Monday night he along with his family including wife Santo Devi, his 20-year-old son Jitender, brother Bhimsen, Bhimsen’s wife Urmila Devi, niece, 22, and nephew Tribhuwan, were standing outside their house when Nakul Thakur, a resident of the same village, came and tried to pull his niece (22) inside the car.
The complainant further stated that on protesting Nakul’s molestation bid, he left the spot abusing the family and threatening them with dire consequences. Soon the accused returned with his aides and the speeding car hitting the family with full force. As a result, Urmila Devi and Santo Devi were killed on the spot while Jitender and Tribhuwan suffered severe injuries.
The victims also claimed that initially, the police tried to hush-up the attempted molestation case as a simple accident. They said that bodies were sent for autopsy on early Tuesday morning. It was only after their extended family and other members of their community lodged protest at the police station that the sections of murder, molestation and harassment were included in the FIR.
However, the police officials denied the charges. It was on Tuesday morning that stringent sections like 307 (attempt to murder), 302 (murder), 354(assault on woman with intent to outrage her modesty) 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and relevant sections of SC/ST Act were included in the FIR.
Meanwhile, as per the molestation victim’s version, the accused, accompanied by his friends, first parked the car near her house and approached the family on foot. “He started staring at my aunt and later came close to me and asked me to sit in the car. His friends even tried to pull me into the vehicle. My uncles
confronted him and he left the spot. But returned to hit us with speeding car,” said the girl.
However, the CCTV footage shows a speeding vehicle ramming into a group of people and speeds away as the neighbours rush to the spot.