The inhuman face of UP police

The role of the police officials, both senior and junior, in the case of the death of a sixth standard student — Divya — after being brutally raped by the son of the school manager in Kanpur  and the rape of a minor by a ruling party (BSP) legislator in Banda town is enough to expose their inhuman face.

It turned out that in both the cases, the police officials, right from the station officer level to the superintendent of police, not only made every attempt to save the guilty but also implicated poor and innocent people falsely and put them behind bars caring little for their rights.

Divya was raped inside her school in September last year. The school employees later left the girl at her home a good two hours after the incident, without providing her any medical help.

Conspiracy

Although Divya’s family immediately pointed the finger of suspicion towards the school manager’s son, the station house officer of Kalyanpur police station Anil Kumar, who was investigating the case, arrested one Munnalal, a poor daily wage worker, on charges of raping Divya despite the plea of the victim’s family that he was innocent.

Kumar has been suspended and a case had been registered against him for keeping an innocent in illegal custody. Munna was kept in illegal custody for about a month and tortured so brutally that he even admitted to having molested the girl.

In Divya’s case, the police crossed all limits in its bid to save the real culprits. The circle officer Luxmi Nivas Misra  roped in a lady doctor Abha Mishra, who later turned out to be a relative of his to substantiate the police theory.

In her report, Dr Abha Mishra claimed that the little girl, who was bleeding profusely, was pregnant and had perhaps aborted and thus accounted for the blood.

A strong reaction by the common people forced the state government to order an inquiry by the crime branch CID, which indicted several police officials. The SHO, CO and the additional superintendent of police were suspended. However, the SP was spared.

The story of the Banda rape victim Sheelu is no different. The BSP legislator from Banda Purushottam Naresh Dwivedi not only allegedly raped her repeatedly at his house but also got her arrested on trumped up theft charges.

Torture

And the district police went all out to save the ruling party MLA. The officials at Atarra police station arrested 17-year-old Sheelu and tortured her to withdraw her complaint against the MLA.

Here also, the inhuman face of the police was exposed. Although Sheelu, who was gang raped by the MLA and his three associates, was bleeding and was not able to walk properly the officials did not bother to get her to a doctor.

Even the Banda district police chief Anil Das tried to save Dwivedi. He not only visited the jail without making any entry into the registers and spent six hours there, but also made every attempt to pressurise Sheelu not to press the rape charges.

Two police officials have been suspended after an inquiry but the SP is still very much there. Das was also present when the legislator issued threats to take revenge but chose to look the other way.

The state police, till now, have been involved in brutal use of force even on peaceful protestors, acting at the behest of their political masters. Now, these two incidents certainly reflect that the men in khaki have stooped too low.