Female constable from Kota accuses SHO of rape

It’s not a routine rape story. Here both sides –the victim and the man accused of raping her– are police personnel.

Despite that the woman had to approach court to seek justice. When the complaint of a 24-year-old female constable from Kota were not redressed by the senior police authorities, she filed a criminal complaint (isatgasa) in the court alleging that an SHO kept physically exploiting her for six months promising to marry her. She has alleged that the SHO even threatened to kill her when she asked him to marry her.

Though the victim’s statement has been recorded by the court, the accused SHO has still not been arrested. The accused was posted at Bayana police station in Bharatpur.

In her complaint, the female constable has identified the SHO as one Vijay Shankar Sharma who was at the time of incident serving as SHO of Udyog Nagar police station.

“I got posted at the Udyog Nagar police station in December 2011 as female constable and Vijay Shankar Sharma also joined in the same month and served till February 2012. I used to talk to a sub-inspector (SI) on phone of which the SHO came to know. He asked me not to talk to the SI, and threatened me to take a departmental action if I did not do so,” she said in complaint.

The female cop said, “The SHO started texting me and I fell for his glued talks. Sharma was later transferred to Mahavir Nagar police station but used to sleep at staff cottage at Udyog Nagar police station. Sharma used to talk to me and slowly he started acting obscenely. When I objected, he said that he has fallen in love with me.”

The complainant alleged that on the night of October 23, 2012, Sharma called her to meet him at Udyog Nagar for some urgent work. She alleged that Sharma took her to his quarter saying they will talk there. The victim knew that the man lived with his family at the quarters and hence went there, but no one was there. She alleged that in his quarters, the SHO raped her. She claimed that when she started crying after getting raped, the man promised to marry her but asked her to wait for some time.

She said in her complaint that due to promise by Sharma, she did not complain to seniors about the incident and a physical relationship got established between the two which lasted till March 2013. When the SHO finally refused to marry her, the woman complained the matter to the senior police officers including the Superintendent of Police (SP), Kota and the Kota range Inspector General of police but no action was taken against the SHO, the female constable alleged in her complaint in the court.

When dna contacted, victim’s advocate confirmed that the statement of the victim has been recorded.  “Only recently the statements of the victim were recorded in section 164.

The police are yet to take action against the SHO,” said Sadiq Khan, victim’s advocate.