13-year-old identified all the places, say cops

The 13-year-old rape survivor has identified all the locations in Lalitpur and other areas where she was sexually assaulted by the accused station house officer (SHO) Tilakdhari Saroj in the said district, police said on Wednesday.

Police said that the probe team will be taking the girl to Bhopal to identify the locations there also. The girl was medically examined under tight security at the Lalitpur district hospital on Wednesday. After that, forensics experts accompanied her to the locations, said a senior police official. She identified the police station and the inspector’s chamber where she was raped as well as the point from where she was taken away by the four accused before that, the official said.

In a bid to evade arrest, the Pali SHO had also conspired to hand over the minor to the Childline NGO instead of her parents, said people aware of the developments.

Initially, the girl’s parents had filed a missing complaint with the SHO as they had suspected that their daughter had been kidnapped, said people aware of the developments.

After the parents saw the accused, who they suspected had kidnapped their child, roaming free in the village despite filing a police complaint, they doubled their efforts to trace their child, making the SHO uneasy, people aware of the details added.

On being asked about the girl’s whereabouts, Saroj told the senior police officers that she had been found, but was refusing to go with her parents, so she should be handed over to an NGO, the people quoted above said.

On the basis of his report, the minor’s custody was passed on to the NGO, which has a screening system in place, police said.

While undergoing counselling, the girl confided in the NGO’s counsellor and revealed that she was allegedly raped in Bhopal and then by the SHO inside the police station.

“So far, it appears the SHO was in league with the accused. He did not act on the family’s complaint and kept misguiding the seniors,” a police official on the condition of anonymity said.

“Like the other accused, the SHO will also be taken on remand after being produced in court. He was arrested by a police team in Prayagraj on Wednesday,” said a senior officer.