Raipur: The Chhattisgarh Police have started an investigation against unknown personnel following a complaint that CRPF troopers had molested a group of schoolgirls at a government hostel in the Maoist stronghold of Dantewada during a cultural programme.
The probe was launched after the warden complained to the police. Palnaar, where the alleged incident took place, is 25 km away from the district headquarters of Dantewada.
“We have received a complaint from the warden of the hostel against the unknown men in uniform and started investigation,” said Abhishek Pallav, additional superintendent of police (ASP) in Dantewada, a report in the Hindustan Times said.
“An FIR under Section 354 IPC has been registered promptly at Kuakonda police station. More sections can be added based on Section 164 of the CrPC and statements of victims.”
Pallav also said the issue is a serious one and proper investigation in the case will be carried out. “The statement of the girls will be taken and the accused will be identified,” he added.
The matter also came into light after an activist, Himanshu Kumar, wrote a Facebook post on Sunday about the alleged molestation.
The Facebook post literally translates to :
“In the Dantewada yesterday, news of sexual abuse by the CRPF soldiers with tribal girls was written by me,
Today, Hindustan Times correspondent Ritesh Mishra talked to the Additional SP of Dantewada in this matter,
Police say that the ward of the girls’ school also informed the police about the incident and police has registered an FIR against unknown workers today,
This is a very mischief action,
The CRPF jawans went to the girls’ school in the presence of government officials, and at the same time, the girls had entered the restroom and insulted them,
Instead of writing reports against unknown workers, the report should have been clearly written against the CRPF jawans,
Well, the police has filed this report against unknown workers to save their lives,
We know that the interest of the police is in suppressing this matter,
The police will either not record the statement of the victim girls or they will write the same as the police wants,
But this case was not highlighted by me alone,
The security forces behave like this with the public,
More than 500 complaints by me have been deposited in the Supreme Court.”
“There was programme of a private news channel on Rakshbhandhan going on in the hostel in which the CRPF personnel were invited so that the girls could tie rakhi on July 31. When the programme concluded, few girls went to the toilet and there they were molested by the CRPF personnel,” Himanshu Kumar told HT.
“The personnel molested them in name of frisking. The warden later complained about the act to senior administrative officers but nothing was done,” he said.
Himanshu claimed that the CRPF camp in Palanaar is just 100 meters from the hostel and that other atrocities of the CRPF officers were also reported in recent past.
