FIR filed 11 days after Bihar minor was gang-raped and tonsured

The women police station in Gaya on Monday registered an FIR in the case of abduction and gang-rape of a 15-year-old girl, 11 days after the incident.

The FIR was lodged after intervention by the DGP and other top police officials. The police came under a lot of criticism after the incident, especially after a village panchayat held the survivor responsible for her ordeal, tonsured her and paraded her throughout the village, before warning the family against lodging a police complaint.

All the panchayat members present during the ‘hearing’ have been named accused in the FIR lodged under the POCSO Act.

“On August 15, my daughter had gone outside to relieve herself when six people in a car abducted her. She was taken to the roof of the panchayat building, where she was disrobed and beaten up. Later, all the six accused took turns to rape her,” the survivor’s mother said on Monday at the SSP office.

The girl was spotted by a woman who gave her some clothes and informed the girl’s family members who took her home.

Since the girl had identified one of the accused, her family members raised the issue at the panchayat.

The panchayat however, said that the survivor was levelling false allegations and ordered the girl’s head to be tonsured and for her to be paraded throughout the village.

Niranjana Kumari, SHO of the women police station, Gaya, confirmed the incident and said that an FIR has been lodged. The survivor was sent to the Government City Hospital in Gaya for medical examination. A police team was also trying to get the survivor’s statements recorded under section 164 of the CRPC.

Since the survivor and her family have been threatened by many of the villagers, the police will provide them adequate security, Kumari said.

The Bihar Women’s Commission took suo motu cognizance of the incident and has sought a report from the Gaya SP. Politicians too reacted angrily to the incident with the opposition pulling up the Nitish Kumar government for failing to provide security to women in the state. “The fairer sex are living in an environment of insecurity in Bihar,” said RJD spokesperson Bhai Birendra, strongly condemning the panchayat’s decision against the gang-rape survivor.

JD (U) spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan while declaring the incident shameful said, “Such incidents reflect lack of social awareness in our society. The police are doing their work to the best of their abilities. They wasted no time in lodging the FIR no sooner the matter was reported to them.”