Rewari gangrape: Heads roll, woman ASI suspended

Chandigarh/Rewari: After the shunting out of Rewari Superintendent of Police (SP) Rajesh Duggal, a woman assistant sub-inspector has been suspended over alleged delay in taking action in the gangrape case of a 19-year-old woman.

“The orders to suspend ASI Hiramani of the Women’s Police Station, Rewari were issued on Monday. She has been placed under suspension over allegations of delay in taking action on the complaint and negligence,” a Rewari district police official said on Tuesday.

Earlier, Duggal was moved out as the Rewari SP and Rahul Sharma was made the new district police chief. The victim’s family has alleged that the police failed to take prompt action on their complaint and delayed action by citing jurisdictional issues between their units in Rewari and Mahendragarh districts.

The family has alleged that the Women’s Police Station in Rewari, after registering a “zero FIR” in the case, delayed action and failed to promptly hand over the probe to the Mahendragarh police, under whose jurisdiction the incident took place. A zero FIR can be filed at any police station and can later be transferred to the police station concerned.

The case has prompted the opposition parties to demand Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s resignation on moral grounds, saying the state had failed to protect its daughters. The Congress on Monday demanded imposition of President’s Rule in the state, alleging that the BJP-led government had utterly failed to tackle the law-and-order situation.

Meanwhile, residents of the village where the woman was allegedly gangraped, claimed that the the spot where the crime took place was infamous for nefarious activities. They alleged that there were incidents of girls being harassed by vagabonds at the spot in the past as well.

“We demand an exemplary punishment for the accused. However, our plea is that no innocent youth of the village should be harassed by the police as many have been called for questioning,” one of the villagers said. Meanwhile, teams of Haryana Police continued with their raids on Tuesday to nab the two prime accused in the case — armyman Pankaj and Manish.

The Haryana Police has so far arrested three men in the case, including Nishu, who, according to the police, is one of the three main accused. The three arrested accused were remanded to a five-day police custody by a court in Kanina, Mahendragarh on Monday.

The 19-year-old woman, a board exam topper hailing from Rewari, was abducted from a bus stop in Kanina town of Mahendragarh district on Wednesday when she was on her way to a coaching class. She was allegedly drugged and gangraped at a room adjoining a tubewell in an agricultural field, the police had said.

Besides Nishu, the two other men arrested in the case have been identified by the Haryana Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) as Sanjeev, a medical practitioner who checked on the woman’s health condition after the crime, and Deendayal, the owner of the property where the woman was allegedly gangraped.