MP survivor who helped nab men behind multiple rapes

A first year Bachelor of Arts student at a government Madhya Pradesh college, on May 13, the 21-year-old tribal girl traveled from her village in Singrauli district to Sidhi, in the hope that she would be given a scholarship. A harrowing few hours later, she was allegedly raped five times through that evening in an empty house without power, assaulted, and warned against speaking out. And yet, four days later, she found the courage to narrate the ghastly version of events to both her family and the Madhya Pradesh police, and in the process, uncovering a modus operandi that had been used on at least 6 other women, with investigators now looking for more victims. On May 23, the Sidhi police arrested 30 year old Brajesh Prajapati, the prime accused, and three other accomplices—Sandeep Prajapati, Luvkush Prajapati and Rahul Prajapati under Sections 376 2(n), (rape by impersonation), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 394 (voluntarily causing hurt while committing robbery), 366 (kidnapping), 294 (using obscene language), 323 ( voluntarily causing hurt) and 120 b ( criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Police officers said that they have identified seven victims thus far, of which five have registered complaints at the Majhauli police station in Sidhi. “But apart from her, the others had not shared their ordeals with their families or the police due to social stigma. But after the FIR lodged by the victim from Singrauli, four others followed suit and filed a complaint. A perusal of the call detail records of the accused show numbers of 20 women, and they are also being contacted by the police,” said Ravindra Verma, superintendent of police, Sidhi.

In her statement to the police, the 21-year-old girl said that at 4 pm on May 13, she received a phone call from a woman who said that she was from my college, asking if she had received her “scholarship.” When the victim said she hadn’t, she was told to travel to Tikri with her Aadhaar card immediately. “I reached Tikri around 6 pm, and the woman told me to come hear a higher secondary school, where her son would pick her up. I found a person there on a black motorcycle, wearing a helmet and black gloves. He told me to come with him and identified himself as Archana madam’s son,” she told the police.

The victim was then allegedly taken to a vacant house near a forest on Gijwar road, which had no power, dragged inside, and raped five times until midnight. She said that when she asked him to stop, she was assaulted, her mobile phone looted, and was told she would be killed. “He threatened me with dire consequences, and said I would be defamed. He then took me to a secluded place and left me on the road,” the victim told the police.

In pain and alone, the victim then allegedly sought help from a near-by home, the owner of which told her that she was in Barseni village, 15 kilometres away from her own village. “I called my father from their phone and told him I was the victim of loot, and stayed there the night. The next morning, I boarded a bus and returned home,” she said to the police.

Two days later, on May 16, she gathered the courage to tell her family what had befallen her, and on May 17, she filed the first complaint in the case at the Majhauli police station. That complaint then set off a police investigation that has uncovered multiple victims allegedly raped over three months; all lured to the same spot using a voice application that made it seem like a woman was calling.

Superintendent of Police Verma said, “The woman didn’t just help us in uncovering the crime, but also in the identification of the accused. We took the investigation seriously and had first thought a woman was involved, but after mobile phones of the accused were seized, found that he was using a voice application. He has called many women, but there are 20 that have been contacted repeatedly. We are checking if more people are involved, but the accomplices arranged for targets, and sold the looted mobile phones.”