Maharashtra: Police try using girl as 'bait' to catch her rapists, victim gets raped again

In a bizarre move, Jalna police in Maharashtra used a rape victim to set a trap for her rapists. However, the plan went horribly  wrong and the girl was raped again by the accused. [caption id=“attachment_2109403” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] According to the police, two men had raped the girl at an isolated spot along Nava Road on 7 July  at knife-point. They also took her mobile phone and shot a video of the act. The men had attacked the girl and her male friend  and then dragged her to a forest nearby. They also demanded Rs 2000 from the girl in return of the phone. While the teenager was at the police station filing an FIR, she received a call from the accused who asked her to meet them and take her phone back by paying them the money. Thinking this was a good way to catch the accused, the police encouraged the victim to meet the two men under the pretense that they would be getting the blackmail money, NDTV reports. It was decided that the police will follow her. The Indian Express reports that the plan fell through that day as the accused didn’t show up. Following that, the accused asked the victim to meet them on 9 July. She informed the police, who yet again, asked her to meet her rapists, promising to follow her. However, that plan went horribly wrong leading to the victim getting raped again by the same men.

“The plan was that the victim would be escorted by the police to the spot. The victim, however, mistook a regular patrol van which passed by her house as the escort vehicle and thought that was the signal for her to leave for the spot,” said Special Inspector General of Police, Aurangabad Range, Vishwas Nangre-Patil to the Indian Express.

The alleged rapists were arrested a few hours later at a railway station, and the police officer in charge of the ‘bait’ operation has been suspended pending inquiry, according to the Indian Express. The accused as Nitin Savle (19) and Sanjay Havare (21) who have been remanded to police custody until 18 July.

An NDTV report points out that the officers involved in planning the operation have now said that the girl had gone to meet the accused the second time without informing them. However, Vishwas Patil, Inspector General of Police, Aurangabad district, told NDTV that, ‘it is wrong to use a victim, especially a minor victim, as bait’.

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