Police to reopen Gonda ‘rape’ case

Nearly a month after police closed the case of an alleged rape of a minor girl in Gonda district, the Superintendent of Police, Navneet Kumar Rana, has ordered re-opening of the case.

The police had been reluctant to investigate the case from day one after the family, who work as labourers, filed a complaint. The police lodge an FIR only after the 15-year-old got pregnant, but they closed the case without conducting a DNA test, or making an arrest or even questioning the accused.

Last week, the victim's mother met Gonda SP Rana and informed him about the girl's pregnancy and the final report filed by the police. The SP has now ordered the Kernalganj Station House Officer to re-open the case and conduct further investigation.

The girl, a resident of a village about 10 kilometres from Kernalganj town, was allegedly raped by one Miraz alias Munna who lives in the neighbourhood on June 30, 2012 when she was sleeping inside her house while her parents were sleeping outside.

The girl's father, a labourer, said he approached the police, but they did not entertain their complaint. The girl's mother said, "When the police did not entertain my complaint, I went to a lawyer for filing a petition for registering an FIR." Her lawyer Surendra Mishra said the petition under CrPC 156(3) was filed in the court of Gonda Chief Judicial Magistrate in July.

After two months, the family got to know that the girl was pregnant when she fell ill. "I carried my daughter to a doctor who told us that the girl was pregnant," said the mother.

On the direction of the court, an FIR was lodged on charges of trespass, rape, and criminal intimidation at Kernalganj police station against Munna, his father Barkatullah, and their relatives Babloo and Wali Mohammed on October 23, 2012. However, investigating officer Sub-Inspector Ramhit of Kernalganj police station filed a final report on December 18, claiming that the case arose from "old enmity" between the families of the victim and the accused.

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