Seven Rashtriya Janata Dal leaders, who are also members of a fact-finding team, have been booked for allegedly forcing a gangrape survivor to narrate her ordeal in public in Bihar’s Gaya district, PTI reported on Saturday. The first information report was registered by the police for “blatantly violating the provisions of law and revealing the identity of rape victim against her wishes”.
A video shot by supporters of the leaders showed the fact-finding team members coercing the 15-year-old girl out of a vehicle at Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College in Gaya. The girl was brought there for medical examination on Friday. “Please don’t take me out of the vehicle,” the girl is seen saying, according to the Hindustan Times. “I don’t want to show my face to the world till the culprits are hanged to death. My only wish is to see them hanged.” One of the seven RJD leaders is also seen assaulting security personnel.
The fact-finding team, which included two RJD legislators, was constituted by Leader of the Opposition in Bihar Assembly Tejaswi Yadav. Gaya Senior Superintendent of Police Rajeev Mishra said RJD General Secretary and Ujiyarpur MLA Alok Mehta, Belaganj MLA Surendra Yadav, state president of RJD women’s cell Aabha Lata, party’s district president Nijam Mian were among those booked in the case.
RJD General Secretary Mehta, however, said the allegations were false. “This is an attempt to divert people’s attention from the case in order to protect the accused by the state government,” he told PTI. “Why the police took the victim after 38 hours of the incident for medical examination instead of getting it done within 24 hours?”
The Gaya Police on Wednesday detained 20 men for allegedly raping a woman and her daughter after tying the woman’s husband to a tree. The accused had allegedly waylaid a medical practitioner, who was travelling on a motorcycle with his wife and daughter, near Sondiha village. They then assaulted him, tied him to a tree and took turns raping his wife and daughter in a field, said the police.
Magadh Range Deputy Inspector General Vinay Kumar said the state women’s commission has sought a report from the police too. On Friday, a team from Patna’s Forensic Science Laboratory visited the site of incident to collect samples and evidence.
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