Court orders FIR against 5 for ‘bid to rape’ 16yo Dalit girl

Pilibhit: Following directions from the court of additional district and sessions judge, a case was registered against five men for allegedly wrongfully restraining, molesting and attempting to rape a 16-year-old Dalit girl while she was returning home late at night from a village fair in Pilibhit on Nov 6 last year."After hearing my sister's screams for help, some residents rushed to the spot and rescued her. The accused, aged between 19 and 24 years, fled after local residents arrived but not before threatening to rape her in future," the girl's brother said.The brother told the court that when he approached the police station, the cops took his and his sister's thumb impressions on blank papers. And instead of taking legal action against the accused, police charged his two cousins under BNS sections 126 (wrongful restraint) and 135 (assault or criminal force used to wrongfully confine a person) and sent them to jail.He said he later sent a fresh complaint to the superintendent of police by registered post but received no response, after which he sought court's intervention in the matter.SHO Brijveer Singh said on Wednesday, "In compliance with the court's orders, the five named accused have been booked under BNS sections 126(2) (wrongful restraint), 74 (criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 3(5) (criminal act done by several persons in furtherance of a common intention), and 351(3) (criminal intimidation)."Meanwhile, the complainant alleged that despite his sister being assaulted and insulted with caste-based slurs, police failed to invoke appropriate sections of the Pocso Act or the SC/ST Act in the FIR.When asked why sections of the Pocso Act and the SC/ST Act were missing from the FIR, the SHO said, "The appropriate provisions would be added once the police receive documents verifying the girl's age and caste."