New Delhi: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and its top police officer over media reports that a Dalit father died by suicide after cops “forced” a compromise between his daughter and her alleged rapists.
The rights body, which wants a report within four weeks, also asked to know the status of financial relief paid to the victim and about the action taken against the “delinquent officer responsible for the tragedy”.
The 45-year-old farmer killed himself on 17 May after the police reportedly struck the deal instead of registering a first information report (FIR) in the alleged kidnapping and rape of his 11-year-old daughter.
The girl was abducted on 9 May by the three accused when she was on her way to meet her father at a farm.
A marginal farmer, the father filed a police complaint the next day.
But the police reportedly brokered an understanding between the survivor and the three accused in the presence of the latters’ relatives. The girl’s parents were not called or informed, and the station house officer of Amaria in Pilibhit district, Mukesh Shukla, “closed the matter” soon after.
The rights body’s notice to the chief secretary and the director general of police said if the reports were true, then this act amounted to a violation of human rights.
The farmer’s body was found hanging from a tree on Wednesday night. The police then registered an FIR on the complaint filed by the survivor’s elder brother.
The next day, Shukla was quoted as saying: “Three men – Rahul, Dinesh and Rohit – were booked under IPC Sections 363 (kidnapping), 376 (rape), 342 (wrongful confinement), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 306 (abetment to suicide), and under relvant sections of POCSO and the SC/ST Acts. Two of the accused have been picked up, the third is still at large.”
The girl was also sent to hospital for a medical examination.
Superintendent of Police (Pilibhit) Atul Sharma admitted certain lapses in the case on the part of the Amaria police station and said a senior officer had been assigned to probe the matter.
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