Rewari rape: Raids across states to nab accused; ASI suspended for 'delay'

A woman assistant sub-inspector was suspended for alleged ‘delay’ in taking action in the Rewari gang rape case even as the Haryana Police carried out raids in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and several other states to nab two key accused, including an armyman, who are still at large nearly a week after the crime.

Rewari Superintendent of Police Rajesh Duggal has already been moved out of the district over alleged delay in action over the survivor’s complaint.

“The orders to suspend ASI Hiramani of the Women’s Police Station, Rewari were issued on Monday. She has been placed under suspension over allegations of delay in taking action on the complaint and negligence,” a Rewari district police official said Tuesday.

The victim’s family has alleged that police failed to take prompt action on their complaint and delayed action citing jurisdictional issues between Rewari and Mahendragarh district units.

The family alleged the Women’s Police Station in Rewari, after registering a “zero FIR” in the case, delayed action and failed to promptly hand over the probe to the Mahendragarh police, under whose jurisdiction the incident took place.

A zero FIR can be filed at any police station and can later be transferred to the police station concerned.

Meanwhile, under pressure to nab the two absconding key accused six days after the 19-year-old woman from Rewari was gang-raped, raids were carried out in several states including Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

Multiple teams of Haryana Police went scouting for the absconders in Delhi, Rajasthan and Haryana.

Raids are on at Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh. and Haryana, a senior police official said. The two key accused, Pankaj, an Army man and Manish, will be nabbed by “in a day or so”, he said.

Some local villagers claimed before reporters on Tuesday that some of the accused “were roaming freely until Thursday afternoon after which police swung into action”.

“One accused Pankaj even attended a funeral in the village on Thursday. Had police acted early, the main culprits would have been nabbed much earlier,” a local claimed.

The case has prompted opposition parties to demand Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s resignation on moral grounds, alleging the state had failed to protect its daughters.

The Congress had even demanded imposition of President’s Rule in the state, alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party government had utterly failed to tackle the law-and-order situation.

Residents of the village where the woman was allegedly gang raped, claimed the spot where the crime took place was infamous for nefarious activities.

They alleged there were incidents of girls being harassed by miscreants at the spot in the past as well.

“We demand an exemplary punishment for the accused. However, our plea is that no innocent youth of the village should be harassed by the police as many have been called for questioning,” one of the villagers said.

Some villagers also protested that police was “harassing the innocent youth in the name of questioning”.

The Haryana Police has so far arrested three men in the case, including Nishu, who, according to the police, is one of the three main accused.

The three arrested accused were remanded to a five-day police custody by a court in Kanina, Mahendragarh on Monday.

The 19-year-old woman, a school topper hailing from Rewari, was abducted from a bus stop in Kanina town of Mahendragarh district on Wednesday when on way to a coaching class. She was allegedly drugged and gang-raped at a room adjoining a tubewell in an agricultural field, the police had said.

Besides Nishu, the two other men arrested in the case have been identified by the Haryana Police’s Special Investigation Team as Sanjeev, a medical practitioner who checked on the woman’s health condition after the crime, and Deendayal, the owner of the property where the woman was allegedly gang raped.

Meanwhile, close on the heels of the gang rape of the 19-year-old woman from Rewari, another 17-year-old girl from the district has also alleged that she was raped by a former school mate, police said Tuesday.

In another case, a woman hailing from the Rewari district had Monday alleged she was raped by two persons, who kidnapped and dragged her into the fields in Haryana’s Jind district.

Jind police had lodged an FIR on the complaint of the woman, who is a widow, officials said.