The incident came to light on Tuesday after the parents of the victims, who had allegedly been gang-raped on Sunday, met senior officials and complained that the local police had lodged a case of molestation and assault and not gang-rape.
According to the reports, the three girls had gone out in the fields to collect grass for the cattle, when they were molested by three youths of the neighbouring village.
The youths called four others, when the girls resisted and raised an alarm. The brother of one of the victims, who tried to come to their rescue, was also assaulted. The girls were later allegedly gang-raped, reports said.
The local police, however, registered a case of molestation, assault and another case under the SC/ST Act though the families kept insisting that the girls were also gang-raped. The parents alleged that the police were trying to protect the culprits as they belonged to a particular caste.
The police said that the victims' statement would be recorded before a magistrate and a medical examination would be conducted to confirm rape. The police, after the intervention of senior officials, swung into action and arrested six of the alleged culprits and launched a manhunt to nab the seventh.
Two teenaged cousins belonging to a backward caste had allegedly been murdered after being brutally gang-raped at Katra Sadatganj village in Budaon in May this year. The bodies of the girls were found hanging by a mango tree outside the village a day later. The CBI is investigating the case.
Even then, the victims' families had alleged that the local police had tried to hush up the matter and did not arrest the culprits initially.
Comments
Add new comment