Lucknow, January 16: After being in prison for a little over a month, a minor backward community girl allegedly raped by a BSP MLA and later sent to jail on fake theft charges was today released on the orders of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati.
As Mayawati celebrated her 55th birthday, the BSP supremo who faced severe embarassment over the incident ordered the 17-year-old girl’s release on the basis of a probe by CBI-CID which found the allegations levelled against her to be untrue.
Mayawati said action will be taken against policemen involved in harassing the minor who was charged with theft apparently as part of a “conspiracy” after she was allegedly raped by 48-year-old Purshottam Naresh Dwiwedi.
The girl walked free from the Banda District Jail, about 220 km from Lucknow, after an order for her release, issued by the District Judge, was handed over to prison authorities, officials said. The release order was issued two days ahead of the hearing on bail application of the girl in a Banda court.
The girl was arrested on December 12 on charges of committing theft at the MLA’s residence.
She later alleged she was raped twice by the MLA on December 10 and 11 and stuck to her allegations in a statement made before a local court on January 10 after which it ordered police to take immediate legal action.
“The CM has ordered the release of the girl currently lodged in Banda Jail on the basis of a report submitted by the CB-CID,” an official spokesman said in Lucknow. He said there was a provision under which the Chief Minister can order release of an undertrial if it has been settled that the case was “fake”.
Detailed probe will continue, the spokesman said.
The Allahabad High Court during the course of the day ordered that the girl be “released forthwith from jail unconditionally” and she shall be “entrusted to the care of her parents” and “adequate security” be provided to all of them.
The order was passed by a specially-constituted Division Bench comprising Justice Imtiyaz Murtaza and Justice S C Agarwal, which took suo motu cognizance of a newspaper report wherein it was stated that the teenaged girl might have to spend “a few more days” in jail despite having been given a clean chit by the CB-CID.
Earlier, addressing a gathering at a function in Lucknow on her birthday, Mayawati said the charges of theft against the girl “appeared to be part of a conspiracy of the MLA to hide his misdeed”.
“A Crime Branch-CID probe in the matter is on and after its report, the state government will take stern action against the policemen and others involved in harassing the girl,” the BSP leader said.
With a view to provide justice to the girl, Mayawati said that the state government would ensure hearing of case in a fast-track court.
“No one will be allowed to take law into his hands under BSP government. Strict action will be initiated against all those, whosoever they are, who take law into their hands,” Mayawati said in a stern message to partymen to remain disciplined.
The girl was arrested following a complaint filed by Dwivedi’s brother at Attara police station in December soon after she was allegedly raped by the ruling party legislator.
Earlier, on January 12, cabinet secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh had claimed that the theft charge against the girl was genuine.
“Sheelu, before fleeing from the MLA’s house on December 12, took a mobile phone of his daughter-in-law and Rs 5,000 in cash. She even made 150 calls from the mobile phone,” he had told reporters. “The theft case was correct and arrest justified,” he had said.
The continued incarceration of the girl had caused outrage among social activists while political parties also slammed it.
Dwivedi, who represents Naraini seat in UP Assembly, was arrested Thursday in connection with the alleged criminal assault on the girl. The MLA was later sent to 14 days of judicial remand by a Chief Judicial Magistrate.
The girl was allegedly raped on December 10-11 last year at the legislator’s residence. She escaped from the house on December 12 when the MLA allegedly attempted to rape her for a third time and was arrested on the same day on theft charges.
While the MLA’s two aides — Rajendra Shukla and Surendra Neta — have been arrested, the third accused Ravan Garg is still absconding.
–PTI