PM Asks Officials to Take Strict Actions against Gang Rape Accused in his Constituency
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Apr 11: The Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday directed the Varanasi officials to take strictest possible actions against the perpetrators of the gang rape of the 19-year old local girl and take appropriate measures to prevent recurrence of such incidents in future.
Mr Modi received a detailed briefing on the alleged gang-rape of a young woman in his parliamentary constituency when he arrived in the city to launch several development projects. A statement from the Uttar Pradesh government said, “Immediately after landing in Varanasi, the prime minister was briefed by the police commissioner, divisional commissioner and district magistrate on the “recent criminal rape incident in the city. He instructed them to take the strictest possible action against the culprits and to implement appropriate measures to prevent such incidents in the future.”
The case is related to the alleged gang rape of a 19-year-old woman by 23 individuals over several days. Police have so far arrested 12 accused and stated that the remaining suspects would be apprehended soon as the probe expands.
The victim’s father said his 19-year-old daughter left home on March 29 to visit a friend, during which she came into contact with a group of boys. According to the police, the girl was lured and taken away and raped for several days. The victim alleged that 23 people raped her over a span of seven days.
The police found the victim in a “bad state” on April 4 and rushed her to a hospital for treatment. “She was in a bad state. After treatment, when she became normal, she narrated the whole incident,” the girl’s father said.
According to police, the accused drugged the victim and moved her between several hotels for the duration of the abuse. Police had earlier said a case was registered under sections 70(1)(gang rape), 74 (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 123 (causing hurt by means of poison, etc., with intent to commit an offence), 126(2) (wrongful restraint), 127(2) (wrongful confinement) and 351(2) (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
So far, police have arrested 12 of the 23 accused in the case. These men have been identified as Raj Vishwakarma, Sameer, Ayush, Sohail, Danish, Anmol, Sajid, Zahir, Imran, Jaib, Aman and Raj Khan, media report said.
Additional commissioner of police, Cantonment, Vidush Saxena, said the 19-year-old girl had gone out with some youths on March 29 and when she did not return home, a missing persons report was filed by her family on April 4. While she did not mention anything about the rape to the police when she was rescued, her family lodged a complaint alleging gang rape on April 6.
On March 29, the survivor had gone to her friend’s home, her mother said in the complaint. “On the way back home, she met a boy named Raj Vishwakarma, who took her to his cafe in Lanka, where he and his other friend did ‘bad acts’ with her.”
She alleged that the next day, on March 30, the victim met a boy named Sameer, who was on a bike with his friends. He reportedly took her to a highway on his bike and did a ‘bad act’ with her on the vehicle itself, the mother alleged in her complaint. Sameer left the survivor at Nadesar.
On March 31, a boy named Ayush, along with his five friends named Sohail, Danish, Anmol, Sajid and Zahir, took her to Sigra’s Continental Cafe. There, they made her consume intoxicating drinks and then took turns to rape her.
The next day, on April 1, one Sajid and his friend took the survivor to a hotel, where two to three other people were present. The survivor’s mother alleged that there a man raped her before throwing her out.
While being on the way from that place, the victim met Imran. He also took her to a hotel and raped her after getting her intoxicated with some drinks. However, when she screamed, he left her outside the hotel.
On April 2, a man named Raj Khan took the survivor to his house in Hukulganj and tried to rape her after drugging her. When she screamed, the youths took her and left her at Assi Ghat in an inebriated condition.
The next day, on April 3, a man identified as Danish took her to his friend’s room and there Sohail, Shoaib and one other person drugged the victim. They raped her and then left her near Chowkghat. When the survivor finally made it home on April 4, she told her family about her ordeal.
