The Muzaffarpur Police on Monday ordered a probe into a case wherein a 15-year-old rape survivor was allegedly asked to sell her baby on the orders of local panchayat. The minor girl had given birth to the baby last month.
Shockingly, the local panchayat in Katra, Muzaffarpur, whom the girl had approached with a demand that a DNA test is conducted to identify the baby’s father, had blamed the girl and her family for rape and asked the victim to sell her baby for Rs 20,000.
The police had lodged an FIR under sections of the IPC and POCSO Act after the minor rape victim, who was allegedly repeatedly raped by a local Muslim cleric at Muzaffarpur mosque and later by an electrician, filed a complaint in July.
Superintendent of Police (SP) Jayant Kant said, “We have ordered a probe into the entire case, including allegations against the local panchayat, under additional SP (East) Amitesh Kumar. The team would intensify the search for the two accused,” said Kant.
As per the FIR, the villagers used to send food for the cleric of the Mosque on a rotational basis. In what transpired in January 2019, the victim, who was illiterate, had gone to deliver food to the cleric at the mosque where he allegedly sedated her and subsequently raped her. The accused had also made a video of the heinous act and used it to blackmail the minor girl to rape her repeatedly. A local electrician who came to know about the matter had also raped the girl later.
The minor victim, who initially kept quiet about the doings, had approached the police at an advanced stage of her pregnancy and also sought the panchayat’s intervention recently to seek help for the maintenance of her and the child. Both the cleric and the electrician have been absconding.