It has come to light that the Chincholi police registered a case of rape of a minor girl five days after her parents first approached them.
Three police personnel have now been suspended for dereliction of duty.
The police not only refused to entertain the 11-year-old girl’s parents from filing a complaint when they approached them on December 20, but also kept senior police officials, including Superintendent of Police N. Satheesh Kumar, in the dark about the incident.
‘I am shocked’
Mr. Kumar told The Hindu on Tuesday: “My conscience is disturbed… I don’t have words to condemn the attitude of the personnel in the Chincholi police station. I don’t know why a case of rape was not registered based on the parents’ complaint and why senior police officials were not informed about the incident… I am shocked.”
Mr. Kumar has suspended police sub-inspector Mahantesh Patil, a police constable who was the station house officer and writer on duty when the girl’s parents came to file the complaint, and a Special Branch constable attached to the police station for failing to inform his superiors about the incident, pending a detailed inquiry.
The incident came to light after the intervention of a relative of the victim and Child Help Line authorities. Senior police officials in the district headquarters woke up to the situation and directed the Chincholi police to register a case on December 24 night.
Mr. Kumar said the girl, hailing from a very poor Kabbaliga community family, was raped on December 19 and her parents approached the police the next day.
The police did not send the girl for the mandatory medical test nor recorded her statement. The girl complained of severe stomach pain and uncontrolled bleeding after three days and was taken to a private hospital in Solapur in Maharashtra.
Absconding
Mr. Kumar said the police were on the lookout for the accused.
He said police officials, including a woman sub-inspector, had been sent to Solapur to provide protection to the victim and also to record her statement.
Meanwhile, vice-president of the All-India Democratic Women’s Organisation (AIDWO) K. Neela condemned the attitude of the police and demanded immediate dismissal of the sub-inspector who failed to register the case. A delegation of AIDWO, led by Meenakshi Bali, visited the girl in the Solapur hospital.
