Man held for raping minor daughter in Ajmer district

Ajmer: Gagal police arrested a man for raping his minor daughter and aborting her pregnancy three months later. The arrest was made after a special police team took village women and mother of the victim into confidence to get to the facts.

Following a report in the Times of India on January 8, 2019 under the headline ‘Ajmer police say ‘raped’ minor girl possessed by spirits’, the home department directed police to re-open the case and find out the truth.

When police started investigations, family members and villagers repeated the story of spirits which was disturbing the minor girl. Rajender Commando of Gagel police station finally manage to convince the villagers and came up with the truth. “It took 10 months to make villagers friendly and one woman constable of police station befriended the mother of the victim,” a source said.

Police source said initially it was difficult because the accused was the head of some religious group and people did not want to make him an enemy. Therefore they remained silent on such a crime. Later, when police found that some of the villagers and mother beleived in them, the victim’s mother cried and said her husband raped their daughter and then took her for abortion. Even some villagers also came out with the same facts. Police recorded the statements and also videographed their statements for evidence.

It was advocate Raksha Sharma of Sakhi Saheli of Kishangarh town who highlighted the incident when she found that a minor girl was brought to a doctor for abortion. Raksha came out openly and made complaint to the district legal aid authority and also to the police department. Police recorded the statement of the parents of the victim and filed a report that the minor girl was taken over by spirits. Raksha objected why the minor girl was not taken for medical tests and why police had not asked the victim about the crime.