UP rape victim told not to pursue her complaint

He was supposed to ensure punishment to offenders and protection of the innocent. Instead, he advised a victim of sexual assault not to pursue her complaint, lest she should end up doing the rounds of courts without any result.

The advice came from a senior Uttar Pradesh cop, who had been given the charge of investigating the sexual assault case in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur town, about 500 km from here, and it was given a few minutes before the victim was to record her statement in court.

“You do not know anything about the courts. It will be better if you do not pursue the complaint,” the cop reportedly told the victim, an athlete.

She alleged that the cop had been exerting pressure on her to change her statement, and that she was even reprimanded by him on insisting that she would state the truth.

Undeterred, she went ahead and stated what had happened with her on July 10 near the sports stadium in Saharanpur.

Five car-borne youths had sexually assaulted her while she was practising at the stadium. They even tried to crush her under their vehicle when she tried to run away. She had suffered injuries and had to be admitted to hospital.

Earlier, too, UP cops had displayed insensitivity in dealing with cases of rape and sexual assault. A few months ago, another senior policeman had asked the parents of a victim if they had seen her being raped.

Before that, Deoria district's Additional Superintendent of Police Keshav Chand Goswami had allegedly told a victim’s kin that no one would rape an old woman like her. “Itni purani aurat ka kaun balatkar karega (who will rape such an old woman)?”

Goswami had allegedly told the relatives of the victim who had requested him to register an FIR against the culprit after being turned away by the local police station.