Hang culprits to death in public: MP's gang rape victim

A young woman -- gang raped by four persons in Bhopal -- on Sunday demanded that the culprits should be hanged in public for their crime and flayed the police for its "unhelpful" attitude in the whole affair.

"The culprits should be handed out the severest of punishments so that no one else dare commit such a crime. They should be given death, hanged to death on the streets so that there is no repeat of the crime," 19-year-old Puja (not real name) told the media, the first time she did so after the crime was committed in the Madhya Pradesh capital on Tuesday evening.

Puja, whose parents are police personnel themselves and posted in another city, was returning home from coaching classes late on Tuesday evening when she was accosted by two inebriated persons near the Habibganj railway station and raped for three hours. One of the accused subsequently called two more men, who also sexually assaulted the woman.

Two city police stations kept dilly-dallying over registering an FIR, saying the place of occurrence did not fall within their jurisdiction. Finally, the case was registered two days after the crime and two accused arrested.

"The attitude of the police officials was the worst in the case. They forced us to run from one police station to another. When we had to go through the ordeal, despite the fact that both my parents are in police, imagine the plight of other common persons in similar situation," the young woman said.

"It is really regrettable that though police caught hold of the accused, they did not register my complaint. A Sub-Inspector from the MP Nagar police station inspected the crime scene after we went to police at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, a day after the crime, but he raised jurisdiction issues," she said.

It was the family which caught hold of one accused who was found playing cards near the crime scene, who was later handed over to police.

The woman said police personnel at the Habibganj police station were cooperative, while those at the GRP police station and MP Nagar police station were not.

On Friday, five police officers were suspended following a recommendation in a report submitted by Deputy Inspector General of Police Sudhir Lad on the incident.

Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Makrand Deuskar informed that officer in-charge of MP Nagar Police Station Sanjay Singh Bais, Habibganj police station in-charge Ravindra Yadav and Habibganj railway station GRP police station in-charge Mohit Saxena, apart from Sub-Inspectors Tekram and Uikey, were suspended on charges of dereliction of duty.

MP Nagar's City Superintendent of Police Kulwant Singh has been attached to the police headquarters.

--IANS

hindi/tsb/bg