UP cops who gang-raped and murdered a 14-year-old girl inside a police station stand exposed after a second post-mortem was conducted on the girl’s body on Monday.
UP cops who gang-raped and murdered a 14-year-old girl inside a police station stand exposed after a second post-mortem was conducted on the girl’s body on Monday.
As if to rub salt in the wounds of the victim’s family, the guilty cops offered Rs 5 lakh to the dead girl’s mother to buy their silence. The second autopsy report has confirmed that the girl was strangulated, nailing the cops' lies that it was a suicide.
The Mayawati government is under attack over the gang rape and murder of the young girl from the minority community by cops inside the Nighasan police station of Lakhimpur Kheri district. The girl’s body was found hanging from a tree, ostensibly a ruse by the killers in uniform to make the incident look like a suicide.
The Congress has demanded a CBI probe into the matter while other opposition parties have lambasted the Mayawati regime on the horrendous incident which has sparked widespread outrage.
The National Commission for Women (NCW) and the NHRC have issued notices to the UP Police. Three cops have been arrested while the district police chief DK Rai has been shunted out.
Sonam (14), daughter of a laborer living near the police station, was found hanging from a tree in the ‘thana’ premises on Sunday. An autopsy done in unseemly haste concluded death due to asphyxiation, establishing suicide.
Even the district SP, DK Rai, told reporters there was no evidence to suggest rape, and that the girl had indeed committed suicide.
Initial reports in the media evoked a lukewarm reaction from the state administration as the 11 cops deployed in the police station were only suspended. No arrests were made and a CB-CID inquiry ordered.
However, as the din over the incident turned stentorian, the government was forced to change tack. Sonam’s body was exhumed on Monday morning and a second post-mortem conducted. It confirmed that the girl had been strangulated before being hanged from the tree. But the second autopsy did not establish rape either.
“Evidence has definitely been tampered with,” said IG, Lucknow zone, SK Singh, after visiting the crime scene. “We will ensure that the culprits are brought to book and justice is done,” he added.
However, he parried questions about the guilty cops trying to silence the victim’s family by offering money. He said a sub-inspector and two constables had been arrested for trying to destroy evidence.
The victim’s mother Tarannum told the media that the cops had made her an offer of Rs5 lakh. “My daughter was more than anything to me. I can’t sell her body. I just want justice,” she said, trying to hold back her tears.
“This is just another example of how law and order has collapsed in Uttar Pradesh,” UP Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi told reporters. “If the police are committing rape and murder inside a thana you can well imagine what duty the UP police is performing,” she remarked.
“No one is safe in Maya raj,” said UP BJP chief Surya Pratap Shahi. “UP’s record in crime against women was already the worst under this regime, but this incident has crossed all limits of horror,” he added.
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