The conduct of the banned ‘two-finger virginity test’ on a 16-year-old rape victim in Singrauli and a police press statement that she is “habituated to sexual intercourse” led to violence in Rewa on Tuesday night.
Following the report, students from the Hostel for Scheduled Castes and Tribes gathered at Shyam Shah Medical College to meet the girl. The police denied them permission, leading to stone throwing.
No one was taken into custody, Inspector-General of Police (Rewa) Pawan Shrivastava told The Hindu on Wednesday.
The Dalit girl, who was found unconscious near Waidhan, 780 km east of Bhopal, on Sunday night, complained that she was raped by a fellow passenger of a private bus, with the connivance of the driver, the conductor and another passenger, and abandoned on the outskirts of the town.
The four suspects, who were arrested and sent to judicial custody, alleged that she cooked up the rape story after falling down from the running bus as the driver refused to take her to her stop.
On Monday, the police issued a press release quoting the medical report of a three-member team of the District Hospital: “Pt. [patient] is habituated to sexual intercourse. No external injury seen on body, private parts. No evidence of recent sexual intercourse present.”
“An inquiry had been ordered into how this [virginity test] was, done under what circumstances, despite guidelines against the same. To ensure Supreme Court guidelines, the girl was brought to the nearest medical college in Rewa for a different kind of medical exam,” Mr. Shrivastava said. He did not reveal the test result.
