Woman constable accuses suspended deputy SP, ex-sarpanch of raping her

Kota, December 2

A woman constable of Rajasthan Police has accused a suspended deputy superintendent of police of the state and a former village sarpanch of raping her last month in a dharmshala at Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura district.

On the constable’s complaint, a case of gang-rape has been lodged against the suspended Rajasthan Police Service officer Vijay Shankar Sharma and former sarpanch Badri Arya of the Luhawda village panchayat of Itawa Panchayat Samiti at the Borekheda police station, the police station’s SHO Mahendra Meena said.

He added that with an RPS officer involved in the case, the probe into the case has been given to Kota’s Additional Superintendent of Police Bhagwat Singh Hingad.

The SHO said the constable had earlier also accused Sharma of molesting her during his tenure as Itawa circle officer, said the SHO, adding the constable had, in fact, filed three cases earlier against Sharma with the police having filed a closure report in one of the cases after investigation.

The gang-rape case lodged against Sharma and Arya last Friday on the city SP’s instruction is being investigated by him, ASP Hingad said, adding the woman constable has already been medically examined and her statement under section 164 of the CrPC was recorded on Wednesday before a judicial magistrate.

Detailing other findings of the investigation, the ASP said the woman had accompanied Sharma and Arya to Vrindavan in a train and she has accused the two of raping her on November 14 in a dharmshala there in Vrindavan.

The police teams have been dispatched to Vrindavan to secure CCTV footage of the dharmshala besides ascertaining other claims of the victim, Hingad said.

DSP Sharma was suspended on charges of improper conduct in September this year while serving as Itawa circle officer. —PTI