Indian police officer arrested for ‘raping’ gang-rape victim

LUCKNOW: Indian police have detained an officer suspected of rapping a 13-year-old girl in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh after she went to him to report a gang-rape, an act that has raised outrage in a country where women are routinely assaulted.

A state police official said the head of a rural police station in Lalitpur, a district approximately 580 kilometres (360 miles) south of New Delhi, was among four persons arrested on Wednesday.

“Those found culpable would face severe punishment,” Prashant Kumar, a senior police officer, told Reuters on Thursday.

“For treatment, the rape victim has been admitted to the district hospital.”

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Because the accused cop is in detention, Reuters was unable to contact him for comment.

The crime was only just brought to light after the victim, a Hindu youngster from the lowest caste, was able to make a police report.

She claimed in her complaint that she was gang raped by four boys on April 22 and taken to a neighbouring state, but that she escaped a few days later and went to the police station on April 27, where she was assaulted again.

Politicians and campaigners called for immediate action to safeguard women.

“Where will women go with their complaints if police stations are unsafe for them?” Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, a key leader of the main opposition Congress party, was asked this question.

In response to public pressure following a series of assaults on children, India enacted the death penalty as a punishment for rape of females under the age of 12.

After the gang rape of a young woman on a moving bus in the city in 2012, which sparked national outrage and resulted in new rules, the number of assaults on women remained high.

According to the government’s most recent crime data, about 32,000 rapes or attempted rapes were reported in India in 2020.