Meerut gangrape: Mulayam Singh promises CBI probe

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Tuesday promised a CBI probe into the alleged abduction, gang-rape and forced religious conversion of a 20-year-old woman in the Kharkhauda area of Meerut district in Uttar Pradesh.

“Senior officers have been asked to keep a vigil. Law and order cannot be compromised with,” said Yadav, according to TV reports.

“She tolds me what happened. I don’t know what to do. They (the perpetrators) should be hanged,” said the victim’s mother. The victim herself told the media, “They told me that my religion is a lie and praying to crores of God is wrong.”

“There were more girls there but I don’t remember,” added the victim.

The woman, a BA student, had alleged that she was forcibly converted to Islam in a madarsa in Hapur. In addition, she has said she was held captive in another madarsa in Muzaffarnagar for three days, where she was sexually assaulted.

“Three persons have been arrested in this connection so far,” Inspector General of Police (law and order) Amrendra Singh Sengar told reporters. The arrested trio include a cleric named Sallaullah, his wife and daughter Nishat, all named by the victim’s father who lodged the complaint at Kharkhauda police station. The complainant has also named the village head, a man identified as Nawab Khan.

IGP Sengar added that Kharkhauda Station House Officer Dinesh Kumar Singh had been removed from the post and sent to police lines for delay in lodging the FIR and failing to take prompt action.

The gang-rape, which reportedly took place last Tuesday, took a political turn with Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Laxmikant Bajpai and MLA Sangeet Som, one of the main accused in the Muzaffarnagar riots case, declaring that they would meet the victim and her family.

(With inputs from PTI)