A mother of four children can't be raped, concludes UP cop

A woman who has four children cannot be raped. That may sound ridiculous. But that is what the UP police seem to believe.

In a rather unseemly episode, a police official in eastern UP’s Deoria district turned a rape victim and her husband away from his office after humiliating them only because the victim happened to be a mother of four children.

The assistant SP KC Goswami raised doubts about the woman’s allegations of having being raped by a local goon, asking how a woman in her 40s and having four children could be raped.

“Itni puraani aurat se kaun balatkaar karega,” is what the ASP actually said after he was told that the woman had four children, the eldest of whom was 15 years.

The woman and her husband had been running from pillar to post over the past two days to get an FIR registered with the police but to no avail. They approached the ASP on Friday expecting justice would be done, but came away humiliated.

Once the news hit the TV channels, the UP DGP AC Sharma apologised for the ASP’s indiscretion. He has also directed the Deoria SP to submit a report about the incident within two days. Sources said the ASP who had embarrassed the entire UP Police could be suspended soon.

@DNA