Lucknow: Hours after the station officer (SO) of Amaria police station in Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit allegedly asked a woman rape complainant to “go and die”, she Thursday consumed poison and was filmed accusing the SO of taking a Rs 10 lakh bribe from the accused. Later, she died at a Bareilly hospital.
Now, the police have conceded that SO Brajveer Singh did not proceed speedily with the investigation and suspended him.
In May this year, the woman, a resident of Pilibhit’s Amaria area, lodged a rape case against her neighbour, Asif. She accused him of taking Rs four lakh from her, raping her repeatedly on the pretext of marriage, and then refusing to marry her.
In videos shot by media persons outside the police station hours before her death, the woman is heard saying that Brajveer Singh “cooled off” the investigation into the case after taking a Rs 10 lakh bribe to file a final report, a precursor to a closure report.
The videos went viral on social media after her death. Subsequently, the Pilibhit police launched an inquiry by the circle officer (city). After he submitted a report Friday, Brajveer Singh was suspended.
According to Pilibhit SP Avinash Pandey, the woman had known Asif for seven years. The complainant’s family members said Asif used to take money from her before he left for Dubai on the promise to marry her on his return, but later refused to.
According to the woman’s elder brother, she would steal money from her house and give it to Asif. “He would withdraw the money she deposited from a Bank of Baroda branch,” he said. The brother added that roughly two-and-a-half years ago, Asif left for Dubai, and when he returned, he did not marry his sister.
Saying that Asif “backstabbed” his sister, her brother told media persons that the police took no action and made no arrests in the case, and Asif married another woman on 20 October.
“When she found out he had married another woman, she started making rounds of the police station, but the police were negligent. She consumed poison due to police negligence. We would not accompany her anywhere, and she would go to the police station alone,” he said.
According to the sister, a local politician, Chandu Lala, and the SO would call the woman to meet the accused’s side on the promise that the matter would be resolved. The SO gave the woman poison, she has alleged.
The Samajwadi Party district chief of Pilibhit. Jagdev Singh, who met the woman’s family on Saturday, alleged that Chandu Lala is a BJP member, who works with a sitting minister from Pilibhit. “Chandu Lala mediates in all matters of the Amaria police station,” he told ThePrint.
The BJP, however, distanced itself from Chandu Lala. Its Pilibhit district president Sanjeev Pratap Singh told ThePrint that he does not know who Chandu Lala is.
In a statement issued Friday, Pilibhit SP Avinash Pandey said that after the woman consumed poison, the Amaria community health centre admitted her before referring her to the Pilibhit district hospital, and then she was transferred to a higher-level health centre in Bareilly.
“Later, a Bareilly police team and her relatives took her to the Bareilly hospital. Her family conducted the last rites,” he said.
On Brajveer Singh, the SP said, “Serious allegations of negligence in investigation were levelled against him—on which a report has been received from CO (city). He has been suspended. A department inquiry has been initiated against him.”
Police sources told ThePrint that the woman lodged an FIR against Asif and some of his relatives on 18 May this year, and the SO filed a final report in the case on 8 June.
Circle officer (city) Chaturvedi told ThePrint that the details of his inquiry report, submitted to the SP, are confidential.
CO (Jehanabad) Vidhi Bhushan Maurya, under whom the Amaria police station falls, told ThePrint that the Bank of Baroda branch through which Asif allegedly took money from the deceased would be roped in for further investigation into the case.
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‘SO sahab took my life’
According to the woman’s family, on Thursday, she left to meet Brajveer Singh at 3 pm. At the station, she asked him to help her get her money from Asif or take action against him. However, the SO allegedly suggested she “go and die.”
In the viral videos, she hurls serious allegations against the SO and the local politician, Chandu Lala.
“He (Brajveer Singh) took money and sat on the case. Police took Rs 10 lakh. Chandu Lala brokered the deal. He is their leader,” she says while writhing on a stretcher at the Pilibhit district hospital.
In the 1.33-minute-long video, the woman says, “SO sahab ne meri jaan le li (SO sahab took my life)… hai Allah… I am in a lot of trouble…please give me some injection,” she says, adding that no one has come to see her.
In another 2.08-minute-long video, she says the police cooled off on the case and filed a final report.
“As soon as they got money, they stopped all action in the case and told me to die. He (the SO) told me to go and die…. the man (Asif) has been roaming around freely, and they did not even lodge a chargesheet. I said that if justice is only meant for those with money, he (the SO) should tell me,” she says.
“I was very upset for the past ten days. They would make me sit at the police station every day….he claimed that he would bring the accused to the police station in an hour—which was only a sham to quieten me,” she says.
“Police did not take any action. He (Asif) spoiled my life. I wanted to send him to jail, but they do not want to send him to jail,” she says.
Massive corruption under BJP rule, says Akhilesh
Targeting the BJP government for sharing the officers’ dishonesty, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has sought a thorough investigation into the case and action against those who received the bribe.
“It is sad that a rape victim from Pilibhit committed suicide by consuming poison after months of frustration, upset with the corrupt and inhuman behaviour of the police under the rule of the BJP, which is involved in massive corruption from top to bottom. The proof of this is in the video of the deceased. Will the BJP members want to make any big statement on ‘women’s safety’ now? Their participation in the officers’ dishonesty is the root cause of the problem,” Akhilesh Yadav wrote on X.
“The UP government should itself pass a ‘condemnation motion’ for its corruption and heartless behaviour and impose a fine of Rs 1 crore on itself and give this condolence amount to the family of the deceased,” he further wrote on X.
“Jan-jan kahe aj ka, nahin chahiye bhajpa (public says that they don’t want BJP today),” he added.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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