Delhi Police register rape case against its men, no arrest yet

New Delhi, June 24 Two days after a woman alleged five policemen had raped her in a police station, Delhi Police registered a case early Wednesday and launched investigations into the complaint but no arrests were made yet.

The woman has alleged that station house officer (SHO) Pradeep Kumar of the Inderpuri police station and four constables raped her in a lock-up on the second floor of the police building Monday afternoon.

The allegation soon led to a riotous situation in Inderpuri area in southwest Delhi, and several vehicles, including those of the media and TV channels, were damaged in stone throwing by mobs.

The case was registered just past Tuesday midnight when the woman appeared before sleuths of the Crime Branch and recorded her statement before them, a police official said.

According to Supreme Court directions, police have to register a case immediately after a woman approaches them with a complaint of rape. Investigations follow subsequently.

“After doing rounds of news channels, she came to us around midnight. We recorded her statement and registered a rape case accordingly,” said an official investigating the case.

“We have launched an investigation into the case. We are checking the close circuit television camera (CCTV) footage installed at both the entrances of the police station to verify whether the woman was brought to the police station,” the officer added.

“If needed, we will parade the police station staff before the woman.”

Cell phone details of SHO Pradeep Kumar will also be scrutinised to ascertain his location on Monday afternoon. Besides, Crime Branch sleuths have collected the police station’s roster for Monday and were questioning the duty officers.

A team of experts from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Rohini examined the premises of the police station and is said to have collected samples. Police sources said the investigations were being carried out with all scientific angles.

The victim’s clothes and vaginal swabs have already been sent to the forensic laboratory and reports were awaited.

Delhi Police Commissioner Y.S. Dadwal said: “People should keep faith in us. We are conducting a free and fair inquiry in the incident. The SHO has already been sent to police lines and if anyone found guilty, we will take a strict action against him.”

Assistant Commissioner of Police and Delhi Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said: “She has blamed the SHO and four other policemen, but has not mentioned the name of the policemen. The SHO is cooperating with the investigating team.

“All kinds of evidence is being collected and only after examining them we’ll be able to draw a conclusion. But no substantial evidence has been found so far against the policemen for us to arrest them,” he said.

According to the woman, a police team came to her home Monday morning looking for her husband, against whom three cases of bootlegging and betting were registered at the police station.

“Since my husband was not at home, they took me to the police station in the afternoon. I was taken into the lock-up on the second floor where one of the policemen raped me. Later, four other policemen came from nowhere and took turns to rape me,” she has told reporters.

“They threatened me with dire consequences if I revealed the incident to anyone. I called up my husband who asked me to come to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RML),” she said.

As the news of the alleged rape spread, around 200 people, mainly young men and boys, gathered outside the police station late Monday and raised slogans against the policemen. When police dithered over registering the case, the mob got angry and started throwing stones and bricks at the police station Tuesday.

Two people were arrested Wednesday for pelting stones at the police station.

The initial medical reports have not confirmed rape.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Wednesday said that reports of two incidents of gang rape in the capital in the last two days have deeply upset her.

“I don’t want to comment on what the police are doing, but I certainly feel very upset and disturbed when these kind of things happen,” Dikshit told reporters.

“We will go deeper into this and wait for Delhi Police to investigate,” she added.

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