Chhattisgarh: Seven cops suspended for inaction after rape incident

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Thursday announced suspension of seven policemen, including a station house officer (SHO), for alleged inaction following a gang-rape in Balrampur district.

Baghel made the announcement in the state Assembly after the issue was raised by Congress MLA Brihaspat Singh through a calling attention motion.

On February 19, a Class 8 student from Tangarmahri was returning home with a friend after visiting a temple when two motorcycle-borne men tried to abduct the girls, Singh said.

While one of the girls managed to escape, the accused took the other one to a house in Dahejwar village where they, alongwith a third accused, raped her the whole night before fleeing in the morning, said Singh, MLA from Ramanujganj.

The victim returned home, but when her parents took her to Balrampur police station, the police treated them with insensitivity, Singh alleged.

The SHO asked the victim's mother if she had seen the girl being raped, Singh alleged, adding that the victim and her family were made to wait at the police station and no medical treatment was provided nor was an FIR lodged.

Villagers had to gherao the police station for the victim to be taken for medical examination, he said.

The MLA also alleged that the police was trying to protect the accused.

Refuting the charges, Home Minister Tamradhawaj Sahu said when the victim's friend returned to the village and informed about the abduction, a police team along with villagers had carried out a search the whole night.

When the girl was brought to the police station on February 20, an FIR was lodged under sections 363 (kidnapping), 376(2)(N) (continuous rape), among other provisions of the IPC and the Protection of Children from

Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the home minister said. Pintu alias Ravi Thakur (23) and Kuldeep Ram (20) were arrested and sent in judicial remand while the third accused, a minor, was presented before a juvenile justice court, Sahu added.