Just when the psyche of the country was slowly recovering from the Hathras gangrape and murder which had shaken the nation, another case of similar horrendous nature has emerged from Uttar Pradesh. A 50-year-old woman was gang-raped and brutally murdered allegedly by a priest and two others in the Badaun district in Uttar Pradesh.

Just like in the Hathras case, the victim in the Badaun case also suffered police apathy in life and in death. The victim had gone missing on Sunday evening, but when the family approached the police they were ignored, then again when the accused had dumped her body outside her house later that night, the police did not consider it urgent enough for immediate action.

The Incident

The victim, an Anganwadi worker, left for a temple in her village at around 6 pm on Sunday. When she did not return for two-three hours, her family went to the police station but were turned back. Later that night, at around 11:30 pm, three men dumped her body outside her home and fled. According to the victim’s family, the three men were temple’s priest Baba Satyanarayan, his disciple Vedram and driver Jaspal. Sources said that before dumping her body outside her home, the accused had also taken her to a medical centre. But when she died, they came to her home, rang the bell, threw her blood-soaked body there, and fled.

According to the victim’s family when they rushed to the Ughaiti police station to file a complaint, Station Incharge Ravendra Pratap Singh refused to listen to them and said that he will take up the matter the next day. The cops visited the victim’s house on Monday morning and sent the body for postmortem.

In the postmortem, which was conducted some 18 hours after the body was found, the doctors have found serious injuries to the victim’s private parts, evidence of substantial blood loss, and fracture in a leg and ribs.  After the post-mortem report, the police finally filed an FIR against the priest, his disciple, and the driver.

Progress in the case

The driver and disciple were arrested by the police on Tuesday. The priest is still on the run. The police have formed four teams to nab him. “On Sunday, the 50-year-old woman, who had gone to a temple, was found dead under mysterious circumstances. Family members of the woman have accused that the temple mahant and his aides of raping and murdering her. Based on this, a case was registered against the accused. Two of the accused persons were arrested on Tuesday night, while the mahant is still absconding,” Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Sankalp Sharma informed the media on Wednesday. Four teams have been formed to nab the priest, the SSP said.

SSP Sharma also added that the station house officer (SHO) of Ughaiti police station has been suspended for laxity in the case.

Seeking the intervention of the UP police, the National Commission for Women has said that it will send its member to probe the incident. The commission, in a statement, added that it is deeply perturbed by the reported incident and the alleged police apathy. NCW Chairperson Rekha Sharma has written to Director General of Police, Uttar Pradesh seeking immediate intervention in the matter. The Commission has also sought a detailed action taken report in the matter from the police.

As per CM Adityanath’s orders, a special task force has been formed which will investigate the matter along with the police, Prashant Kumar, ADG Law & Order told the media. The case would also be investigated under NSA.