Sunita Prajapati, Banda: On the 11th of July 2019, a girl’s dead body was discovered on a railway line in Banda district in Uttar Pradesh. The victim’s family alleged that she was raped and murdered, but the police haven’t paid any heed to this and the family has been looking for justice for a month now.
The victim had left home on the evening of the 10th of July to relieve herself, which is when she was kidnapped. The family alleges that the police are trying to shield perpetrators and have been pressuring them to make a statement that this was a case of a love affair gone wrong. Since the family refused to make this statement, the police have refused to take any action. The victim’s father told us that the family had made a police complaint on the 13th of July at Nagar Kotwali, Banda. They followed up multiple times, and also visited SP and DIG Police but seeing no action being taken, had to resort to a hunger strike to have their side heard.
Police has now registered a complaint against one Ramnath aka Banta but the family alleges that others were involved and the police are shielding them. The family is still getting threats from unknown people and is concerned about their safety. The victim’s sister tells us that there’ve gotten threats saying if the perpetrators end up going to jail, they’ll cause more damage. The police meanwhile have been very unsupportive and are citing the lack of evidence and witnesses. Even as the District Magistrate has assured that action will be taken and convinced the family to discontinue the strike, the police’s attitude has been nothing short of inconsiderate. The state of women and women safety in Uttar Pradesh can be assessed by the fact that International Crime Report indicates that Uttar Pradesh has the most incidents involving rape and other crimes against women.
Even as the situation persists, multiple unanswered questions remain around why the perpetrators were able to commit the crime even with the dedicated anti-romeo squads having being constituted, why the police didn’t register a complaint initially, why the police are not investigating properly even now, and why there are so many hurdles to a victim or their family seeking justice. While the state of law and order in the state has always been dismal, even justice has become as difficult to find as God itself. It appears that the attitude of our police who are supposed to be protecting us is what is given impetus to criminals and crime in the state.
Written By- Lokesh Kumar
