Kannauj: “When public gathers, everyone thinks that it’s a police case, let police come and handle,” said a vendor who sells eatables at a distance of 20 meters from the old dak bangla building in Kannauj’s Gursahaiganj where a minor girl was found lying in a pool of blood after a serial offender allegedly attacked her with a brick Sunday.
Bystanders went on filming videos and clicking pictures of the bloodied minor girl, with none stepping forward to take her to a hospital even as she writhed in pain. A few of them dialled the police for help. About three hours were lost before she was finally rescued by local chowki incharge Manoj Pandey. The girl is now admitted to a Kanpur hospital where she is recuperating.
“About 400 people would have flocked to the spot. Crowds kept flowing in… When the sub inspector picked up the girl and rushed her to the hospital, the people followed him and continued to film. Public was inside and outside the premises. There were more people inside the building premises rather than outside,” the vendor told ThePrint.
Asserting that it was the moral responsibility of a bystander to help a victim in such cases, the Kannauj Police Friday lodged an FIR against unknown persons. “They could have helped till the time the police reached the spot but instead they made videos. The FIR is against unknown persons and nobody will be treated as a main accused in the case [lodged against bystanders]. Further investigation will help clarify the role of the persons. Nobody will be questioned or disturbed,” Kannauj Circle Officer City Priyanka Bajpai told ThePrint.
CCTV footage in possession of ThePrint showed the prime suspect, Ramji Verma, walking ahead of the girl and talking to her around 1:30 pm. Police sources said Verma seemed to have attacked her soon after he led her inside the building and again returned around 2 pm. The child lay unattended at the spot for about three hours.
Subedar, who goes by a single name, a security guard of the dak bangla, told ThePrint that he was alerted around 4 pm following which he rushed to inform the local SHO. By the time the local chowki incharge reached the spot around 5 pm, a crowd had already gathered and many were filming the girl.
The vendor mentioned above said nearly 400 people had assembled during the one hour, right from the time the girl was first spotted by a group of children till the police arrived at the spot.
Asked why no one tried to take the child to a hospital, he said the people stayed away knowing that it was a “police case.” In Gursahaiganj town, most residents seem to have either seen the video or heard about the incident.
Legal and child rights experts asserted that a lack of sensitisation of police and mistrust between the public and the law enforcers have led to such a situation. Lack of clear guidelines about Samaritans helping a victim of a criminal assault adds to the complexity, they added.
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Sheer brutality of crime shocked people
Mohammed Nadeem, a local resident who was at the spot, hinted that onlookers got scared after sensing the sheer brutality of the crime. “Too much blood,” he said, adding that he too has a video.
Residents of nearby Kidwai Nagar, Afsari Mohalla and Samdhan mohalla had reached the crime spot after hearing rumours of a child being dumped there.
Bittu from Kidwai mohalla who was present there told ThePrint that bystanders did not come forward to rescue the child fearing trouble from the police as it was a criminal case. “People don’t want to get their name associated with any kind of crime. They are afraid of phone calls from police and of making several rounds of police stations.”
It was not that the people did not want to help the girl, Bittu said. “People were discussing if the police were informed. Someone said that the security guard was on his way to the police station. Many people thought it was better to wait for the police to arrive.”
Some of the locals asserted that it was the viral videos that brought the crime to the fore and put pressure on the police to act.
“The incident happened on 23 October and the accused is yet to be arrested. Had we not made videos and the media not reported it, there would be no pressure on the police. Later, four persons were arrested for helping the accused to escape,” said a resident of Afsari mohalla.
In one of the videos, a man is heard telling the crowd that he had gone to the police station and the police were informed. A local farmer leader can also be seen calling up the local police inspector in charge in the same video.
Police have lodged the FIR was lodged against 15-20 persons under Sections 228A (revealing the identity of a rape victim), 354C (voyeurism), 505 (2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes) of IPC and the IT Act based on a complaint by chowki in charge Manoj Pandey.
In the FIR, a copy of which is with ThePrint, Pandey mentioned that when he reached the spot after receiving information, he saw the injured girl lying in bushes, crying in pain and signaling for help by raising her hand.
“Despite this, 15-20 persons standing there were making videos and clicking pictures when I stopped them and picked up the child in my arms,” reads the FIR which states that the accused persons displayed “inhumanity and uploaded the videos on social media violating the privacy” of the child.
A group of residents of Gursahaiganj including an ex-MLA have collected Rs 6 lakh for the girl’s medical treatment.
Where the law stands
In 2019, the Centre had brought an amendment to the Motor Vehicles Act launching the Good Samaritan scheme for encouraging people to help road accident victims.
Section 134A of the Motor Vehicles (MV) Act defines a good Samaritan as a person, “who in good faith, voluntarily and without expectation of any reward or compensation renders emergency medical or nonmedical care or assistance at the scene of an accident to the victim or transports such victim to the hospital.”
Supreme Court advocate Kumar Mihir said that since the scheme was enacted for road accident victims and since it arises out of the MV Act, the general understanding is that the protection is limited to only those helping road accident victims.
Mihir also highlighted the lack of sensitization of police and mistrust between the police and public.
“Most people are unaware of their rights and worry about getting associated with a police case. Lack of sensitisation of police and their highhandedness is the larger issue behind this. Intimidation of witnesses, Samaritans at the hands of the police and not caring about their convenience results in mistrust,” he said. “Despite much debate about protection of such people, the police continue to have a colonial mindset.”
While Samaritans lack protection in crime cases, experts said, the very act of videographing a rape victim even without any ill-intention can lead to imprisonment.
Section 74 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act not only prohibits disclosure of identity of child victims but the terms are also applicable for deceased victims.
Satya Prakash, manager of NGO ‘FXB India Suraksha’ that runs childline services in Noida, told ThePrint that the larger issue was of morality.
“This is not the only incident where people started filming a child. The purpose is why they are consuming this video… Spending time in filming the incident rather than alerting the system can be penalised. The fact is that people who are even storing such videos and not circulating them, do not enjoy any protection. If a person filmed such a video merely for sending it to the administration and the police, he/she does not enjoy any protection in law per se,” he said.
“If there is mistrust between the authorities and the public, taking a call on their own won’t help the latter. They [people] do not have protection from law in such a case.”
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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