Bihar SHO who confined woman, raped her for a week is on the run, SIT set up

PATNA: A station house officer (SHO) in Bihar’s Kishanganj district confined a woman who approached him for help to find her missing husband at his official residence and allegedly raped her for a week, people familiar with the matter said, citing an initial inquiry conducted by the district police.

His associate, Manoj Yadav, did find her husband while she was locked up in the Terhagachh SHO’s house and they finally let the woman go home only after the husband paid ₹2 lakh.

Kishanganj superintendent of police (SP) Inamul Haque Meghnoo said a first information report (FIR) was registered against the sub-inspector (SI), Niraj Kumar Nirala, and Manoj Yadav, the headman of Dak Pokhar panchayat, and booked for rape, extortion, and wrongful confinement. “The SI was immediately suspended and a special investigation team (SIT) was constituted to arrest them,” the district police chief said.

Meghnoo said the case was registered after deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Rajan Kumar investigated the allegations levelled by the rape survivor and found them to be true.

Additional director general (headquarters) Jitendra Singh Gangwar said the state police had taken a very serious view of the incident and ordered the SP to file the charge sheet against the accused at the earliest. “The Bihar police force is a very disciplined and professional force and does not tolerate any act by personnel that could malign its image,” Gangwar said.

In her complaint to the Kishanganj SP, the woman from Ambedkar Nagar district in UP said she went to the police station to look for her husband and met the SHO who promised to help her and tasked Manoj Yadav to trace her husband. “The SHO took me to his residence on the pretext of helping me but he confined and repeatedly raped her for eight days,” the woman alleged in her complaint according to the police.

Yadav did trace her husband and extorted ₹2 lakh for her safe release on SHO’s directions. The woman was forced to return to her native place. The woman told the police that she told her in-laws about the incident in the second week of May and approached the SP for action.