The Uttar Pradesh Government has ordered a fresh inquiry into the sensational case of a 25-year-old Dalit woman who has accused her SDM (sub-divisional magistrate) father of raping her and unleashing a reign of terror against her husband’s family to avenge her escape.

Pratima, a science graduate, had approached the National Commission for Woman (NCW) nearly a month ago. Although the authorities in Lucknow are yet to respond to NCW letters, Pratima was called by the Director General of Police Bua Singh and Chief Secretary Navin Chandra Bajpai to Lucknow recently. “They gave me a patient hearing and have promised a fair inquiry into the false cases lodged against my husband’s family and also my personal exploitation by my father,” she told The Indian Express.

An officer of the rank of Senior Superintendent of Police has been given the charge of the inquiry.

Pratima has alleged that her father Birendra Kumar, SDM of Derapur in Banda district of Kanpur, had repeatedly raped her for one year and the police authorities did not pay heed to her several complaints. Buckling under SDM’s influence, inquiry officers would inform her father about it and eventually she would be made to deny having made such a complaint. Finally, she had escaped and married a distant relative’s son.

Pratima’s petition with the NCW said her “powerful father used his influence to allegedly kill her brother-in-law and got several false cases lodged against her in-laws.” In between, she was allegedly abducted and raped by her father again and only a habeas corpus petition filed by her husband set her free.

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