The Supreme Court revoked the bail of a police station officer accused of rape

The Supreme Court set aside the Allahabad High Court’s order granting bail to a police station commissioner accused of raping a 13-year-old minor Dalit girl at a police station in Uttar Pradesh’s Lalitpur district and directed the accused to surrender and send him. to jail This Supreme Court order came on the plea of ​​the minor girl’s mother who approached the Supreme Court against the Supreme Court’s decision to grant bail to the accused.

A bench of Justice AS Bopanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar said, “This is a very serious situation where a gang-rape girl has reached the police station seeking justice and the allegation is that the head of the station took her to the police station. “The court dismissed the decision of the Allahabad High Court to grant conditional bail to the accused and said that the matter should be seriously considered instead of looking at it superficially. At this stage we have to give the accused, be any reason or logic to justify the decision to grant bail .”

The Division Bench, referring to the case of State of Jharkhand v. Sandeep Kumar, held that even in this case, the court showed no leniency to the police officer who was accused of misusing his powers against a common man. In the order dated May 3, there was no heinous crime: “In the Lalitpur case, there was an appalling situation where the minor gang rape victim was brought to the police station seeking justice and the accused lead station again returned to the scene. at the police station.” I committed the same heinous crime with him.”

HS Phulka, senior advocate and advocate of Bachpan Bachao Andolan, described the rejection of the policeman’s bail application as important for the criminal justice system, saying that the Supreme Court has given a very clear message that if policemen themselves are involved in crimes, if they are found, they will not be dealt with. treat them lightly.

The Association for Voluntary Action had earlier filed a writ petition under Article 32, pointing out the complete failure of government authorities to implement laws aimed at the care and protection of children. The petition raised the issue of delaying cases related to sexual exploitation and jeopardizing the legal rights of victims.

Referring to the gang-rape of a minor Dalit girl, the petition said no FIR had been registered in the case for five months. Five months later, these criminals gang-raped the girl again. Then, when the girl came to the police station to file a report, the police failed in their primary duty of registering an FIR. Not only this, the head of the police station tortured the victim in the police station and increased her pain manifold. Thereafter, the victim and her family continued to be threatened and harassed.

Because of these inhuman atrocities, the girl’s education was affected and she could not go to school for 10 months. Based on Bachpan Bachao Andolan’s request, the victim was admitted to a boarding school where she could continue her studies, Bachpan Bachao Andolan said in a press release.