Noida: A 16-year-old Dalit girl from Meerut’s Khakhoda area was gang-raped by two men from a nearby village, but, fearing societal backlash, she stayed silent for five months.
The incident took place in December 2017. The teen has gone through an unintended pregnancy, an abortion and immense pressure to keep quiet about the incident.
On Saturday, however, the girl and her family received some relief as the two accused, Pawan (21) and Vipin (20) were arrested by Meerut Police.
Amit Kumar Anand, acting station officer at Kharkhoda Police Station, said, “Five months ago, the two accused found the girl alone in her house and took turns raping her. We have received inputs that they also videographed the act so that they could blackmail her later into staying silent. For months, the girl remained silent but eventually, it became impossible for her to hide the incident from her family.”
The gang-rape had left the teen pregnant, which the accused later found out. According to the police, Pawan and Vipin then contacted the girl again and forced her to get an abortion. The procedure left the girl weakened and her condition worsened.
“She started falling sick almost every day. The forced abortion had left her weak and it started to show. Eventually, her parents noticed what was happening to her and they confronted her,” said Anand.
It was then that the girl revealed the rape, pregnancy and eventual abortion. On April 20, the girl’s father filed an FIR at Meerut’s Kharkhoda police station. Since the accused and the rape survivor belong to separate castes, cops acted swiftly to prevent the situation from becoming more sensitive. But by then, word of a cover-up reached the cops.
“We heard from some sections that a Khap Panchayat was being held in a village near Kharkhoda. It was learnt that the girl’s family was being pressured to withdraw the case in return for a large sum of money. We investigated and found no evidence that a Panchayat had been held, but we could ascertain that the family was under some pressure. We assured the girl’s family that they would not be harmed in any way,” the police officer said.
Meanwhile, the day the girl’s father filed the case, police formed teams to search for the accused since they had gone underground. After a massive combing operation throughout Kharkhoda, police managed to arrest both Pawan and Vipin on the intervening night of April 20 and 21. The have been booked under sections 376 (rape) and 313 (forced abortion) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), along with relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
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