Fresh probe ordered into Mainpuri minor rape case; UP police severely reprimanded

Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh), September 21: Fresh investigations have been ordered by Allahabad High Court into the two-year-old murder and alleged sexual assault of a Class 11 student of a Central Government-run school in Mainpuri. The 16-year-old girl was found hanging from the prayer room in her school hostel.

After the original inquiry conducted by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Uttar Pradesh police was found to have suffered from “serious lapses”, leading to the suspension of three senior police officers and pending action against another, another investigation team has been constituted which has two months to submit its report and will be directly monitored by the High Court.

The family of the deceased minor has continued to allege that she was sexually assaulted before being physically assaulted and later murdered. They feel the genesis of the crime lay in the reason that she knew “secret things” about the school, and that they felt that police were trying to protect the accused in the case — the principal of the school, the hostel warden, and another person. The Uttar Pradesh police prima facie felt it was a case of suicide.

Allahabad High Court has also directed the police to provide adequate security to the family of the victim as well as the petitioner in the case.

The court also said ridiculing Uttar Pradesh police, “It is further directed that in the investigation, all scientific methods should be applied because defective investigation or investigation without collection of proper evidence results in acquittal and therefore only the conviction rate is only 6-7% in such cases.”

Meanwhile, all the accused had been booked for murder, attempt to rape, and under sections 7, 8 and 18 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act based on the complaint of the girl’s father.

On September 16, the Allahabad High Court had summoned Mukul Goel, the Director-General of Police (DGP) of Uttar Pradesh in person. DGP Goel on his part accepted that there were “serious lapses in the investigation of the case and thereby three officers have been placed under suspension”. Additionally, he said an inquiry against the then SP Mainpuri, Ajay Shankar Rai, would be completed at the earliest.

A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court, Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice Anil Kumar Ojha said a new SIT had to be constituted to hold a fresh (and possibly fair) investigation because the investigation conducted till date “cannot be trusted.”

DGP Goel admitted “those police officers defaulted in conducting the investigation in a fair and proper manner” and that action had been taken against the three officers. The Investigating Officer (IO) Pahup Singh, ASP Om Prakash and DSP Priyank Jain were suspended for lapses and negligence in the investigation of the case.

The court said that, in the vaginal slide taken from the victim, human semen was found apart from sperm on the underwear of the deceased girl. Also the report from the Forensic Science Laboratory, Agra was clear and still the IO did not send for a DNA test within 45 days of the samples being collected from the persons named in the FIR or those who were suspected, since after this period, the subsequent DNA remains of no use.

The court continued and said that even the victim’s autopsy report had shown that her hymen was torn and clotted blood was present in her vagina, indicating prima facie that she was raped, but the IO or those directing him did not take such findings seriously and did not send her school uniform for forensic investigation. The IO also recorded the statement of the accused principal of the school, Sushma Sagar, after a period of three months from the time the FIR was lodged on September 17, 2019.

Senior counsel and President of Bar Association appearing on behalf of the petitioner, Amrendra Nath Singh, told court that it was not only a case of serious lapse of investigation but one where the efforts of the investigating team seemed were to benefit the accused. Referring to the FIR, Singh said that the incident took place at around 5.30-6 a.m. on September 16, 2019 but the parents were not informed about it by the principal. Rather, a relative of the family, who was present at the hospital informed them about it, said Singh.

The victim’s father, who works in a private company, said that the constitution of a new SIT has “revived their hopes of justice”. He also added, “She was very intelligent and had scored 93% in her class 10 boards. She was preparing for NEET.”

She could not fulfill her dream of becoming a doctor, but she should at least get justice," the victim’s mother said.

The new SIT has six members, a top official in the home department said, adding that it will be headed by ADG (Kanpur zone) Bhanu Bhaskar. The others in the team are IG (ATS) Lucknow G K Goswami, IG (Kanpur) Mohit Agarwal, SP (Mainpuri) A K Rai, ASP (STF) Agra unit Rajesh Yadav and CO (Kanpur Dehat) Tanu Upadhyaya. The team was formed after the high court on Thursday asked the state government and UP police for a progress report on the case within two months.

High Court directed the police administration to not only monitor the investigation but also guide the IOs to apply “scientific methods” for investigation, so that “it may be taken to its logical conclusions”. The state government was also asked to give proper training to investigating officers on how to probe such cases and collect material evidence. The court suggested the investigating officer collect the call details of the concerned phone numbers.

The bench headed by Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice AK Ojha gave the order on a Public Interest Litigation filed by one Mahendra Pratap Ojha.