Supreme Court’s decision on the petition of Bachpan Bachao Andolan in the case of rape of Dalit minor in the police station in Lalitpur.

Allahabad High Court’s decision to grant bail cancelled, orders to send the accused police station in-charge to judicial custody in UP. The Supreme Court has canceled the Allahabad High Court order granting bail to the police station in-charge accused of raping a thirteen-year-old Dalit minor girl in the police station in Lalitpur district of Uttar Pradesh and has ordered the accused to surrender and send him to judicial custody. .

This order of the top court has come on a PIL filed by the Association for Voluntary Action, better known as Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), which has challenged the High Court’s decision to grant bail to the accused in the case of a minor girl who was gang-raped in a police station. Had approached the apex court against the decision.

Justice A.S. A division bench of Justice Bopanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar said, “This is a very serious situation where a girl who was a victim of gang rape came to the police station seeking justice and the allegation is that the station in-charge raped her in the police station.” The court, while setting aside the decision of the Allahabad High Court to grant conditional bail to the accused, said that the matter needed serious consideration instead of looking at it cursorily. At this stage, we do not see any reason or logic to justify the decision to grant bail to the accused.”

Describing the rejection of the bail application of the police officer as important for the criminal justice system, senior advocate and advocate of Bachpan Bachao Andolan H.S. Phoolka said, “The Supreme Court has given a very clear message that no leniency will be shown to law enforcement policemen if they themselves are found involved in crime.” The writ petition was filed under Article 32 highlighting the gross failure of government authorities to implement the laws and raising issues of pendency of cases related to sexual exploitation and compromise on the legal rights of victims.

Referring to the gang rape of a Dalit minor girl in the petition, it was said that even an FIR was not registered in this case for five months. Five months later, the girl was again gang-raped by those criminals. After this, when the girl reached the police station to lodge a report, the police failed to perform even its basic duty of registering an FIR. Not only this, the police station in-charge increased the suffering of the victim manifold by raping her in the police station. After this, the victim and her family were continuously threatened and harassed. Due to these inhuman atrocities, the girl’s education was affected and she could not go to school for 10 months. Following this petition by Bachpan Bachao Andolan, the victim was admitted to a boarding school where she was able to resume studies once again.

Courtesy: Hindi News