RJD Leaders Force Gang-Rape Survivor To Narrate Ordeal, Case Filed

Many RJD leaders, including its national general secretary Alok Kumar Mehta and MLA Surendra Yadav, have been charged for allegedly forcing a minor gang-rape survivor to get down from a police vehicle and narrate her ordeal, a senior police official said on Saturday.

TV footage showed some of them clicking photographs with the girl on their cell phone and also preparing videos.It happened when an RJD fact-finding team confronted the police when they were taking the minor to a hospital for medical examination on Friday and allegedly forced her to get down from the vehicle and narrate her ordeal, besides making her identity public, Magadh Range Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Vinay Kumar said.

The fact-finding team was constituted by Leader of the Opposition in Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav.

A group of armed youths tied a man to a tree and raped his wife and 15-year-old daughter in Gaya district on June 14, according to the police.The family was waylaid while they were crossing the area on a motorcycle near Sondiha village under Konch police station on June 14 night, following which the station house officer was suspended and 20 youths were detained, they said.

An FIR was lodged against RJD's national general secretary Mehta, Belaganj MLA from Belaganj in Gaya district Surendra Prasad Yadav, the party's state president of women's cell Abhalata, RJD's district president Murshid Alam alias Nezam, district president of RJD's women's cell Sarswati Devi and other unnamed persons in the case, the DIG said.

The case was lodged with Medical police station under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, he said.

He said they were also been booked for creating an obstruction in the discharge of duty by police officials in the case.

Mehta, a former Bihar minister, however, termed the allegations against him and the team as "false" and claimed they were intended to divert people's attention from the case.

"This is an attempt to divert people's attention from the case in order to protect the accused by the state government...Whatever allegations have been levelled against me are completely wrong and false," he said.

Accusing the police of having delayed action in an attempt to cover up the case, Mehta asked, "Why the police took the victim after 38 hours of the incident for medical examination instead of getting it done within 24 hours?"

The party's team did not ask the victim to get down from the vehicle, he said, claiming it requested the girl for some information but she became angry after seeing media persons.

DIG Kumar said that the state women commission has sought a report from the police in this regard.

A team from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Patna had on Friday visited the site of occurrence to collect samples and evidence in the gangrape case, he said.

The FSL team also collected the clothes of both the victims and the arrested suspects for scientific investigation in the case, Kumar said.

Three persons have been arrested in the case, the DIG said, adding that two of them- Shivam Sharma and Gaurav Sharma- belonged to Sonediha village while the third Dipak Paswan hailed from Manglore, a neighbouring village.

The police have set up three separate teams to investigate the case, Kumar said, noting that a charge sheet would be filed soon in a court.

Besides, the police would make a formal plea to the court for a speedy trial in the case, the DIG said.

PTI