Bhopal gangrape: Five police officers suspended for not acting on woman’s complaint
The National Commission for Women has asked the state police chief to take action against the four accused as well as the officers.
The police in Bhopal on Friday presented before the court three of the four men accused of abducting and raping a 19-year old woman on Tuesday night. The inspector general of police said the fourth accused is on the run.
The Madhya Pradesh government has suspended five police officers over the matter, among them the sub-inspector who accused the complainant of making up a “filmy” story, NDTV reported. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan directed that the trial in the case be conducted in a fast-track court, ANI reported.
“A Special Investigation Team led by the deputy inspector general [Crimes against Women] has been established for probing into the incident,” Inspector General (Law and Order) Makrand Deuskar said, according to News18.
The police, according to the complainant’s family, did not act for hours. They allegedly took action only after the woman and her parents found two of the accused and dragged them to the police station. Government Railway Police Superintendent Anita Malviya, however, told News18 that the complaint was lodged within half an hour.
Moreover, the National Commission for Women has written to the Madhya Pradesh Director General of Police Rishi Shukla, asking him to take strict action not only against the accused but also the police officers who reportedly refused to file the complaint. The panel asked the director general of police to apprise it of the developments in the investigation.
The woman, a civil service aspirant, was returning home after attending a coaching class on Tuesday, when the men took her near the railway tracks and allegedly raped her.