An Indian police officer has been arrested for allegedly raping a 13-year-old gang-rape victim.
Police in Uttar Pradesh’s Lalitpur district arrested Station House Officer Tilakdhari Saroj and five others including the teenager’s aunt on Wednesday, after the girl alleged that she was raped when she went to the station to file a report against four men for kidnapping and gang-raping her.
The girl’s mother reportedly said in a police complaint that her daughter was taken by four men to Bhopal in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh state on April 22.
They allegedly raped her for four days before dropping her at the police station and making their escape.
Officer Saroj handed over the girl to her aunt. He called them to the police station the next day to record a statement, where he is accused of taking the girl inside a room in the presence of her aunt and raping her.
She later told her parents, who lodged a report with help from a child helpline.
The officer absconded, but was arrested on Wednesday.
A charges of rape has been filed against him, as well as charges under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences law that carry more severe sentences.
“The case is being investigated. Based on the evidence gathered and the statement of the victim, unbiased action will be taken,” said Prashant Kumar, the state's Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order.
Local police chief Nikhil Pathak said he had suspended all officers linked to the case in the station to ensure zero “influence in the investigation”.
The girl belongs to the Dalit community, from the lowest rung in the Hindu caste hierarchy.
The incident has triggered widespread criticism of the state government ruled by Yogi Adityanath, who has claimed the state is the safest for women.
Incidents of rapes and sexual assault on women in the northern state are on the rise, with official figures showing 11 cases reported every day and a 20 per cent increase in three years between 2016 and 2019.
In 2020, the state recorded more than 3,000 cases of rapes and sexual molestation. More than 28,000 women and girls were raped in India that year — an assault every 18 minutes on average.
One teenage Dalit girl was gang-raped, her tongue chopped off and she was found paralysed with a broken spine. She died during treatment at Delhi's top hospital.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra of the opposition All India Congress Committee condemned the latest alleged incident and called for “women-friendly law and order” to prevent crimes against women.
“If police stations are not safe for women, then where will they go to take complaints? To prevent such incidents, serious steps have to be taken for women's safety and women-friendly law and order,” she tweeted.
