Tribal girl gangraped; threatened not to file complaint

Harda (MP): A 16-year old tribal girl was allegedly gangraped in Madhya Pradesh’s Betul district and threatened by locals not to file a police complaint, an official said today. The Class 11 student and her family were also offered a compromise to prevent her from filing the complaint against the accused, he s0aid.

However, the girl finally managed to reach neighbouring Harda district, around 125 kms from Betul, and filed a complaint with police last evening, almost two weeks after the incident, the official said. The teenager was allegedly raped by five persons at Hardadadu village in Betul on January 11, Harda’s Superintendent of Police Rajesh Kumar Singh said.

The accused offered the victim a lift to her school on their motorcycles and then took her to an isolated place where they allegedly offered her a sedative-laced drink and raped her, Singh said. Later on reaching home, the victim narrated her ordeal to her father and grandmother, he said.

However, when her family members were going to the local police station, the villagers organised a meeting (panchayat) and asked them to accept a compromise in exchange of money and even threatened to kill them, if they filed a complaint, the SP said.

However, the girl, with the help of some relatives, reached the Harda city Kotwali police station last evening and filed the complaint. “We have registered a case against the five accused, aged between 22 and 30, under relevant sections of the IPC and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act,” Singh said. “The case diary would be sent to the police station concerned for further action,” he said.