Lucknow: A 13-year-old girl who was allegedly raped by four men over three days was sexually assaulted again by the station house officer of a police station where she had been left by her attackers, the police said on Wednesday.
Five people have been arrested and an FIR filed against six, including the teen's aunt and the SHO of the Pali police station who is absconding. Besides, all the other policemen of the station have been taken away from active duty and sent to police lines.
Deputy inspector general, Jhansi Jogendra Kumar has been asked to probe the matter and submit the report within 24 hours, officials said.
As chilling details of the case came to light, the opposition Samajwadi Party and Congress highlighted the vulnerability of women and asked where they should go to file their complaint and whom should they trust.
According to the mother of the multiple-rape survivor, her daughter was taken to Bhopal, about 240 km from Lalitpur, on April 22 by four men and raped there for three days.
The men left the girl at the Pali police station, where she was again sexually attacked, she alleged.
The girl narrated her ordeal during counselling at an NGO, which approached the superintendent of police.
Following his intervention, an FIR was registered on Tuesday. ADG (law and order) Prasant Kumar added in Lucknow that the DIG has been told to stay in Lalitpur till the case is solved.
"While the SHO has been suspended, all policemen of Pali police station in Lalitpur have been sent to police lines," said Additional Director General of Police, Kanpur Zone, Bhanu Bhaskar.
Attacking the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government over the incident, the Samajwadi Party said, "The biggest question in the BJP government is whom to trust and whom to not. A minor, who reached the police station to file rape complaint was raped by the SHO himself.”
"Now the CM should say, where should the victim daughters go? Security of the victim should be ensured and strict action should be taken against those found guilty," the party said in a tweet in Hindi.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is expected to visit Lalitpur to meet the rape survivor's family.
Attacking the state government in a series of tweets, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra added the incident of the gangrape and then rape by a police officer after taking a complaint “shows how the real reforms of law and order are being suppressed under the noise of the ‘bulldozer'."
“If police stations are not safe for women, where will they go with their complaints."
"Has the UP government seriously thought about increasing the deployment of women in police stations, making them safer for women? The Congress party had in its women's manifesto made many important points for women security..Today its Lalitpur...", she said.
To prevent such incidents, serious steps should be taken for women's safety and a women friendly law system, she added.
"The FIR was lodged under various sections of the IPC, including 363 (kidnapping), 376 (rape), 376 B (intercourse by public servant with woman in his custody), 120 B (conspiracy), POCSO Act and SC/ST Act," the police said in a statement.
—PTI