Two days after a gang-rape survivor went to the Rampur superintendent of police with what she claimed was recorded evidence (on a CD) of an investigating officer (IO) asking her for sexual favours in lieu of action against her tormentors who were out in the open, she was charged on Friday with "cheating" and sent to jail.
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The 37-year-old woman and a man who police said was her "boyfriend" were bundled off to prison on Friday. Police, who have not yet sent the CD to a forensic laboratory, announced at a press conference that the recorded voice was her boyfriend's and not of the investigating officer.
Interestingly, probe in the case was hurriedly given to the IO's immediate superior in the same thana, who completed the inquiry in two days. Ganj station house officer Revendra Pratap Singh, who carried out the probe, said, "No forensic test was required in the case because it has been proved that a phone we recovered was the one that was used to make the call which the woman recorded. It was made by her boyfriend." When it was pointed out that the "boyfriend's" phone could have been used by someone else to make the crucial call, there were no explanations forthcoming.
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Rampur SP Vipin Tada said, "The woman and her boyfriend had hatched a criminal conspiracy against the sub-inspector (IO) to malign police's reputation. In the CD with the alleged telephonic conversation between her and the IO, the voice of the man she is speaking with does not match the officer's."
Police have also included an unidentified lawyer in the FIR against the woman and her "boyfriend", which has irked city lawyers. A section of lawyers in the district are on a collision course with the police administration. Senior advocate, member and former president of Bar Council of UP Imran Mahbood Khan, said, "How the police are trying to implicate a lawyer in the case is a matter of grave concern for the judicial system. The entire Bar Council stands with the lawyer and we will raise the issue with UP CM Yogi Adiyanath."
According to police, the woman was gang-raped by two men, one of whom was known to her, on the night of February 12 when she had gone to visit a relative and was on her way back to Rampur city.