Three police officers from Madhya Pradesh’s Kotwali Police Station are suspended for allegedly thrashing a Dalit girl when she went to lodge a rape complaint, PTI reported.
Officers were suspended on Wednesday for not lodging the complaint even as they made the girl wait overnight at the station.
The suspended officers have been identified as Station House Officer Anoop Yadav, Sub-Inspector Mohini Sharma and Assistant Sub-Inspector Gurudutt Shesha.
On August 27, when the girl went out of her house but did not return, after which her father lodged a missing complaint at the Kotwali police station.
According to PTI, the girl returned on August 30 and told her parents that a person named Babu Khan had allegedly kidnapped her and raped her for three days.
The girl then went to file a complaint at the police station where she was allegedly thrashed and thrown out without filing the complaint.
The case was finally registered on September 1 after the district Child Welfare Committee filed a police complaint. However, the girl’s mother told PTI that the police did not include the charges of kidnapping.
The mother alleged that two women police officials had put pressure on her daughter to change her statement on the allegations of rape.
Khan was arrested on September 3 under the sections of the Indian Penal Code, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
The child Welfare Committee alleged that the police seemed to be trying to save the accused person and force the girl to change her statement.
Saurabh Bhatnagar, a member of the committee, claimed that they have asked the police to produce documents about the girl’s age after learning she had been mentioned in the FIR as a 17-year-old, instead of 13.
Bhatnagar also said that when a panel member visited the girl’s house, one of the suspended officers was present there with the accused person.
A rape accused cannot be brought in the presence of the complainant, according to the law. Bhatnagar added that the law also says that male police officers cannot record the statement of a woman rape complainant.
