The Jharkhand chapter of human rights outfit People’s Union for Civil Liberties has moved the Palamau superintendent of police seeking his intervention into the alleged unsatisfactory investigation into a gang-rape case and harassment of the Dalit victim by police personnel.

In a letter addressed to Palamau SP Chandan Kumar Sinha on Tuesday, general secretary of the PUCL Jharkhand chapter Arvind Avinash said: “The victim has been constantly harassed by the investigating officer (IO) and the SC/ST police station in-charge of Palamau by not conducting the investigation as per the law in a serious case of gang rape, resulting in direct/indirect benefit to the accused persons. The victim, a pregnant lady coming from a low caste, has clearly stated in her FIR that she was gang-raped by accused Abhishek Kumar Chandravanshi and Dilip Kumar Chandravanshi in a brutal manner on the fateful night of August 4.”

“The victim has also stated that on the previous occasion also she has been raped by the accused multiple times and once again on August 24, the accused raped her and hit her with sticks. When the victim was going to the Ramghar police station on August 25, she was threatened by the accused person to not file any case, after which she somehow managed to reach Medininagar SC/ST police station to lodge a case against them. However, despite there being a clear allegation of gang rape, the official at Medininagar SC/ST police station did not include Section 376D of the IPC which deals with allegations of gang rape,” the letter said.

A case (SC/ST case no. 08/21) was registered in connection with the incident on August 27 under Sections 341, 323, 448, 504, 506, 354 and 34 of the IPC and under Sections 3 (1) and 3 (2) (VA) of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

It also alleges that the victim was not medically examined (mandatory according to the Code of Criminal Procedure) and according to the letter written by her to the Palamau deputy inspector-general of police, even her statement was not recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC. The PUCL letter also alleges that the woman was kept in police custody for nearly 24 hours when she went to lodge an FIR and no action has been taken against the accused so far.

The letter requests that the victim should be immediately provided police protection as she is being constantly threatened by the accused persons who are pressuring her to withdraw/compromise the case and seeks adequate compensation to enable the victim to recover from the mental/physical trauma that she has suffered and that the case be transferred to the CID or the special branch for a fair probe.

The PUCL has threatened to approach Jharkhand High Court if no response is received from the police within seven days of receipt of the letter.

Copies of the letter have also been forwarded to Jharkhand DGP Neeraj Kumar Sinha and chief secretary Sukhdev Singh.

Repeated attempts to contact the Palamau SP on his official mobile number failed to evince any response.

Palamau DIG Raj Kumar Lakra said that he had received a request from the victim’s family.

“I remember receiving a request in this case from the victim’s family and had asked the police station official concerned to do the needful. I will look into the status of the case and inform on Thursday,” said Lakra.