New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday summoned the Ghaziabad police commissioner and the investigating officer in the rape and murder case of a four-year-old girl last month, saying it was deeply shocked by the way the authorities have acted in the matter.
A three-judge bench, led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, listed the case for further hearing next Monday, after taking into consideration the victim’s father’s plea, alleging a lackadaisical approach by the police in probing the case.
The bench, also comprising justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M. Pancholi, noted the “insensitive approach” allegedly exhibited by the authorities concerned, as it took the Uttar Pradesh police to task, along with two private hospitals that allegedly refused treatment to the minor after the incident on 16 March, and she eventually succumbed to her injuries the same day.
The father’s petition, filed by advocate Ashish Batra and Siddhartha Yadav, claimed the police failed to properly investigate the “gruesome, most inhumane and ghastly offence” committed against his 4-year-old daughter.
The plea said that the father presented the photographs, post-mortem report and the inquest report which “clearly showed” the offence of rape, but the police acted in a malafide manner, as it refused to register an FIR for rape.
The FIR registered was solely for the offence of murder, the father said in the plea.
He further said that when he and his family members had gone to the Nandgram police station to report the incident, officials there allegedly locked them up, and even physically assaulted them.
The victim’s mother, who was already overcome with emotions, was also beaten up by the police officials, the plea said. The petitioner also told the court that when they asked for an FIR to be registered, they were threatened, manhandled and asked to keep mum.
The plea alleged the objective behind all this was to not bring any media attention to the case, owing to the impending assembly elections in some states.
The incident
The incident happened on 16 March. Around 6 pm, when the girl’s father had just returned home from work, his neighbour Gaurav Munsi allegedly took away his minor daughter on the pretext of buying her chocolates.
When the neighbour and the daughter did not return after considerable time, the girl’s father, elder brother and other neighbours started searching for her.
During this search, the girl’s family members saw Gaurav emerging from the fields near the Pandit Tejiram School. When they asked him about the girl, Gaurav said she was somewhere in the field.
The victim’s family members rushed there and were shocked to find her body drenched in blood, inside the bushes. They rushed her to two different hospitals–Khajan Singh Manvi Health Care and St. Joseph’s Hospital—both of which denied treatment, they told the court.
Eventually, the MMG Hospital admitted her, only to declare her dead on arrival. The plea also pointed to video footage from the crime scene, saying that the girl was still breathing after the incident while her body was naked, waist down, suggesting she was raped.
On reporting the incident to the authorities, her family was met with humiliation, physical assault and intimidation, the plea said.
In light of these incidents, the plea argued that the UP police failed to conduct a fair, unbiased and transparent investigation into the matter. This violated the fundamental right of the victim’s family, along with the basic tenets of criminal jurisprudence.
In support of their argument, the petitioners presented before the court a post mortem report, which recorded injuries to the vagina and anal area of the 4-year-old girl.
Section 357C of the CrPC, which corresponds to Section 397 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), mandates treatment of victims of rape and sexual assault.
Refusing treatment is a punishable offence, the petitioner argued, while saying the girl would have survived if she was not denied treatment by the hospitals.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
Also Read: 2 convicts acquitted in minor’s 2012 rape-murder. How SC shredded ‘shabby’ probe by UP police