LUCKNOW: The UP government has set up a special investigation team (SIT) to probe into the rape of a minor by the Station House Officer (SHO) on Pali police station premises in Lalitpur district in the Bundelkhand region, recently.
The SIT has commenced the inquiry and is expected to visit the Pali police station and meet the victim shortly.
It may be recalled that a minor girl, belonging to the scheduled caste community, had approached the Pali police station SHO to register a complaint of gang rape against four persons in her village last month. SHO Tilakdhari Saroj, initially, sent the victim to a child-destitute home under the protection of her maternal aunt but called her after two days on the pretext of recording her statement in connection with the gang-rape case. Saroj then took the victim to a room inside the police station and raped her. He then fled the scene.
However, the SHO was immediately suspended and booked along with a woman (victim's aunt) and four others under relevant sections of IPC. Two days after the incident, SHO Saroj was arrested and sent to jail and the entire staff of Pali police station was replaced by a fresh contingent of 29 as the staff deputed there at the time of the incident was attached with the police lines by ADG Kanpur Zone.
The SIT has been set up by the DIG Jhansi range set on the directives of the higher police authorities. The SIT will be headed by SP Jhansi city Vivek Tripathi and would comprise the Circle Officers of Lalitpur and Jhansi.
As per the details of the case, the minor was initially taken to Bhopal by four youths from her village. They kept her in Bhopal for four days and gang-raped her before bringing her back to Lalitpur and leaving her near Pali police station last month.
UP CM Yogi Adityanath had taken strong notice of the incident during his recent visit to Jhansi. Even the opposition had launched a scathing attack on the state government over its handling of law and order.
Samajwadi Party chief and Leader of Opposition Akhilesh Yadav took a jibe at the Yogi government saying that the life and honour of the people of the state were at stake under the present dispensation as they were not secured even in the police station. Akhilesh had even visited the victim in hospital and her family in the village.