Minors gang-raped, hanged in Badaun

TNN

Lucknow, May 29, 20124 : In a throw-back to the medieval times when feudal lords committed gory crimes to reaffirm their hold over the commoners, two minor sisters were gang-raped and murdered before their bodies were hung from a tree in Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday morning. The brazen disregard to law was aimed to nip frail voices of descent against the group of goons who allegedly committed the crime.

 

Expectedly, the local police stood by the perpetrators till the agitated villagers rose up against the atrocity. They refused to hand over the bodies of the girls and forced the administration to book the erring constables along with the accused.

 

The crime took place in Katra village under Saadatganj locality under Ushiat police station of Badaun, one of the four seats the ruling Samajwadi Party won in the Lok Sabha elections. SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s nephew Dharmendra Yadav is the Member of Parliament from the seat.

 

Such was the brazenness with which the crime was committed that a constable of the local police outpost allegedly assisted the accused in the crime while his fellow constable stationed at the outpost on Tuesday night, shooed the victims’ family away when they went to lodge an FIR about the missing girls. On Wednesday morning, the very same constables went to the victim’s house and informed them that bodies of the missing girls had been found hanging from a tree.

 

Tempers running high over the brutal crime, locals gathered at the crime scene and refused to allow the police to send the bodies for post-mortem demanding immediate action against the accused and the police constables who had connived with the rapists/murderers. Later, the protestors shifted to the Lilawan highway barely 50 meters from the crime scene at Katra village under Ushait police station of the city.

 

The accused Awdhesh, Brijesh and Pappu are beloved to be members of the same family and residents of Katra village. As per the FIR lodged in connection with the incident, the accused were allegedly assisted by two constables Sarvesh Yadav and Chhatrapal apart from two other unidentified accused.

 

Police tried to pacify the protesting residents by promising them early action, but the crowd refused to let the police bring the bodies down from the tree till action was initiated against the accused. It was not before 3pm on Wednesday that the bodies were brought down and sent for post mortem and also not before police had arrested one of the five named accused.

 

One of the police constables, Sarvesh, was suspended in the afternoon and the second constable was also put under suspension later, said Circle Officer (CO) City (Badaun) deputy superintendent of police (DySP) Maan Singh Chauhan.

 

In the FIR lodged in connection with the gory crime, the two constables have also been named as co-accused. Allegations are that it was not the first crime committed by the accused. They are known for molesting girls and assaulting their family members in case anyone of them tried to question them or dared to report the matter to the police. Constable Sarvesh was said to be a regular visitor to the house of the accused.

 

In the recent past, some locals mustered courage to raise their voice against the trio. Locals believe the crime was committed only to send across the message that they were above law.