‘Unlocked’ UP sees big spurt in crimes against women | India Today Insight

[Kumar G]

'Unlocked' UP sees big spurt in crimes against women  | India Today Insight

Cases of molestation and other crimes had gone down during the lockdown. But since June, over 100 molestation cases have been reported 



On August 16, police arrested two people in connection with the death of a 20-year-old student who died in a road accident after allegedly being harassed by men on the road to Bulandshahr in UP. (PTI Photo)

On August 14, just a few hours before Independence Day, a 13-year-old Dalit girl was raped and murdered in Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh. She was from a village under Isanagar police station, and had gone to the fields to relieve herself around 10 in the morning. When she did not return, family members started a search for her. Her body was found in a sugarcane field in the evening. The girl had been raped and then strangled with her dupatta.

Initially, the police tried to keep the incident under wraps but with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati and her counterpart in the Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh Yadav, creating a storm on August 15 with their tweets and angry responses, the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in the state was under immense pressure. The Dalit girl's rape-murder was soon trending on social media. The Lakhimpur administration was pulled up, following which two villagers were arrested.

The police were negligent from the beginning. Inspector Sunil Kumar Singh, in-charge of Isanagar police station, reached the spot some two hours after the incident was reported. The police arrested the accused after registering a case of murder but the rape charges were left out of the FIR. After the media outrage, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act and charges of gang rape were clamped in the case. Lakhimpur District Magistrate Shailendra Kumar Singh says, "The rape-murder of the Dalit girl was a tragic incident. Strict action will be taken against the accused. We are also giving Rs 8.25 lakh to the victim's family as financial help from the government."

Crimes against women had gone down during the lockdown but after the June 1 'unlock', it has exploded. Police department statistics say the two-and-a- half months since then have seen more than 100 cases of molestation in the state. And these are just the reported ones.

In the most sensational case of the lot, Sudiksha Bhati, a merit student from Dadri area of Gautam Budh Nagar, died on August 11 after being harassed by miscreants on motorbikes. She fell off her scooter and died after sustaining head injuries. The daughter of a tea stall owner, she had received a Rs 3.8 crore scholarship to pursue a BBA course from Babson College, California. She had recently returned to her village due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Here too the police response was very lax, shrugging it off initially as a minor road accident. But after the Congress UP in-charge Priyanka Gandhi, and the BSP's Mayawati created a shindig, the UP government woke up and the police of Bulandshahar district got into action. The government set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and on August 16, the police arrested two hooligans and recovered a Bullet motorcycle from them which may have caused the accident.

Criminal lawyer Adesh Singh, who lives in Jangbahadurganj, Lakhimpur, says, "The Anti-Romeo Squad, formed after Adityanath took power in March 2017, had become inactive during the Covid-induced lockdown. And now, with schools, colleges and coaching institutes still closed, these young men are just loitering around. As soon as girls and women leave the house, they are harassed."

But government officials blame the change in social structure in rural areas for the rise in crimes against women. A superintendent of police posted at police headquarters in Lucknow, on the condition of anonymity, says, "Around 3.5 million migrant labourers have come back to UP during the lockdown, and. 80 per cent of them live in rural areas. With no jobs, many of them have got involved in unsavoury incidents. There have been reports of migrant labourers being involved in molestation incidents from Azamgarh, Sitapur, Lalitpur, and Bareilly districts."

To stem the rising tide of atrocities against women, the UP government has, for the first time, cleared the formation of women PAC (Provincial Armed Constabulary) battalions in the districts of Gorakhpur, Agra and Lucknow. The first woman PAC battalion of the state will be deployed in Gorakhpur, the CM's home base. The Gorakhpur battalion will be given the responsibility of security arrangements in Varanasi and Azamgarh divisions also. Women PACs will be deployed in every district of these circles. The Lucknow women's battalion will be deployed in central UP and the Agra battalion in western UP.

CM Adityanath has also envisaged a "sherni dasta" to get tough on crimes against women. On July 6, he had flagged it off from the Gorakhnath math campus in Gorakhpur. In the first phase of this scheme, 100 women police personnel deployed in the police lines have been provided with scooties equipped with GPS and PA systems, sirens, flashlights and pepper spray. They will be on patrol with the like People Response vehicle (PRV) squad.

Women officers were not deployed on patrol duty till now, but with the rising crimes against females, it was felt that their physical presence was essential in monitoring such crimes. The 'Sherni Dasta' will have two women policemen patrolling on a scooter. UP additional director general of police (law and order) Prashant Kumar says, "We are taking strict action against in cases of crimes against women. Patrols have been increased so that such crimes can be stopped. "

Women besieged in UP

# Two youths rape a teenage girl on the night of August 14 in Gyanipur village of Barhalganj area of Gorakhpur. After the girl protested, she was beaten up and her body burnt with cigarettes in many places. The police have arrested both accused

# Fed up with the harassment, a 16-year-old student set herself on fire on August 10 in a village in Pipraich area of Gorakhpur. She died the next day. The police have arrested a young man for tampering with evidence; a case has been registered under the Pocso Act

# Fed up with police harassment, a young woman committed suicide by hanging herself in Orai area of Jalaun district on August 8. A day earlier, the police had brought the woman to the station on charges of theft. She had been interrogated for eight hours. The police is investigating the 'suicide'

# In a village in Khuthan police station area of Jaunpur, two minor cousins who were sleeping outside their house on August 7, were gang-raped by four youths of the village. The police have arrested the four accused

# A journalist living in the Vijayanagar area of Ghaziabad complained to the police about his niece being molested. The miscreants shot and killed him on the night of July 21

# On July 5, the wife of Arvind Kumar, who lives in village Sikri Bujurg of Nadigaon police station area of Jalaun, was molested by a youth from the village. Arvind was killed for protesting the attack on his wife. The police have arrested one person in the case.

# Inspector Bhishma Pal Singh, posted in Bhatni police station area of Deoria district, masturbated in front of a girl who had come to the station on June 21 to register a complaint. After the video and the incident went viral, the government dismissed the inspector and arrested him



Source : INDIA TODAY