Kannauj: Victim’s aunt arrested for helping the accused

Kannauj: The aunt of the minor girl who was allegedly raped by former block pramukh Nawab Singh Yadav at a private college here has been arrested, police said on Wednesday. According to a senior police officer, the girl’s aunt, who had allegedly taken the 15-year-old to the college where Yadav raped her on the intervening night of August 11-12, was arrested on Tuesday. The case has triggered a political war of words between the opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) and the ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh. The BJP has alleged that the accused was a former block pramukh and a close aide of SP leader Dimple Yadav when she was the Lok Sabha MP from Kannauj. The SP, however, has distanced itself from Yadav, who was arrested on August 12 in connection with the case. “A special operation group (SOG) of police has arrested the girl’s aunt, who was absconding for seven days,” Superintendent of Police (SP) Amit Kumar Anand said. SP Anand said, “During interrogation, the girl’s aunt claimed that Nawab Singh Yadav’s brother lured her with money to withdraw her statement and not get (the girl’s) medical test done. She also claimed that she was pressured to name other people and say that the incident was a conspiracy to influence the investigation.” According to SP Anand, the girl’s aunt also told the police that she knew Yadav for five-six years and had a close relationship with him. “Yadav had called the girl to his college on the night of August 11, where he molested and raped her. The victim dialled emergency number 112 from her aunt’s mobile and informed the police, who immediately reached the spot and arrested Yadav, who was later sent to jail,” the police officer said.

The police had earlier said that Yadav is the manager of the private college where he had called the girl and her aunt on the night of August 11 on the pretext of helping the teenager get a job. SP Anand said a case has been registered against the girl’s aunt under Section 61/2 of the Indian Penal Code (BNS) and relevant sections of the POCSO Act for allegedly helping the alleged rape accused Yadav. She will be produced in court later, he said. Meanwhile, the district administration has started investigating the legality of Yadav’s properties, Sub-District Magistrate (Sadar) Ram K Singh said. “Naib Tehsildar Himanshu Prabhakar, Revenue Inspector Arun Tiwari, Lekhpal Priya Pal, Vijay Kant Shukla, Amit Mishra, Abhishek Dubey and Survey Lekhpal Amit Rai have been given the responsibility of investigating the properties of accused Nawab Singh Yadav,” Singh said. Yadav was arrested on the night of August 11-12 for allegedly attempting to rape the minor at his college here. According to the police, the next day medical examination confirmed that the girl had been raped and accordingly the charge was added in the FIR.