Child rape: Petitioner wants errant cops booked

New Delhi, April 23 (IANS) A complaint was filed Tuesday in a Delhi court seeking registration of a first information report (FIR) against three suspended policemen for alleged lapses in the handling of a five-year-old girl's rape case.

Right to Information activist Vivek Garg filed the petition before Special Judge Narottam Kaushal.

He sought registration of an FIR against Assistant Commissioner of Police Bani Singh Ahlawat, Gandhi Nagar station house officer Inspector Dharampal Singh and Sub-inspector Mahavir Singh for allegedly threatening the victim's family and offering them money to hush up the matter.

The plea will next come up in court April 29.

The complainant also sought action against Ahlawat for assaulting and causing grievous hurt by slapping a 17-year-old girl protesting against the incident.

Action should be taken against the initial investigating officer of the case Sub-Inspector Mahavir Singh, he added.

The complainant said that the girl, who was kidnapped and allegedly raped by Manoj and Pradeep and kept in captivity for two days in east Delhi, could have been rescued earlier had police swung into action immediately.

By allegedly offering Rs.2,000 to the family of girl and not registering the FIR promptly, police committed a contempt of court, said the complaint.

The girl was abducted April 15 and kept hostage for two days without food and water in the room in which the attacker lived on the ground floor of a building in east Delhi's Gandhi Nagar. The girl's family stays in the same building, police said.

The girl was rescued when members of her family heard her screams April 17.