UP: Rape victim’s father shot dead by accused
LUCKNOW : The father of a rape survivor was shot dead allegedly by the man who is accused of committing the heinous crime against his daughter. The girl’s father was gunned down on Monday when he was returning home by the rape-accused Aachman Upadhyay and died on the spot, according to the police.
The incident is from the Tilak Nagar locality under North Kotwali area, where the girl had filed a case of rape against Aazhman Upadhyay in August last year. But Upadhyay was not arrested and had been on the run ever since.He raped the girl, a Class 11 student, last year in August but had not been arrested yet. His property had been seized on court orders.
While on the run he continuously threatening the girl’s family to take back the case, the family said. After he made another threat on February 1, the family filed another police complaint against him, but no action was taken against the accused.
On February 10, the father of girl was shot dead near his house, leading to his death on the spot. The SSP of Firozabad then cracked a whip and suspended three policemen in the case. “Efforts are being made to nab the accused and he will be arrested soon.
A case has been registered on the application given by the family members of the victim,” said the SSP, Firozabad.
An Inspector and a Station House Officer have been suspended following the murder of the father of a rape victim by the accused on Monday night. The suspended police personnel are inspector Shikohabad and Kotla Road SHO fro dereliction of duty.
The rape victim’s family told local reporters that the rape accused had threatened that if they did not withdraw the rape case against him, he would eliminate them. Sources said the family had informed the police about this but no action was taken.
The police said on Monday night, when the victim’s father was returning home in Tilak Nagar, he was accosted and shot dead by the accused. He died on the spot. The police have set up five teams to arrest the accused.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Sachind Patel said the accused would be arrested at the earliest. He said the accused, Aachman Upadhyaya, was in Shikohabad in August 2019 when the incident took place, but he had not been arrested even though his property had been attached on court orders.
Upadhyaya would pressure the victim’s family to withdraw the case against him. On February 1, he reportedly told them he would eliminate a family member within five days if they did not take back the case.
Uttar Pradesh has one of the worst law and order records in the country and tops the list of states with the highest number of crimes against women, according to latest available government data. In 2018, the father of a woman raped in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao was thrashed savagely by associates of Kuldeep Sengar, a former MLA of the state’s ruling BJP, inside a police station and died from his injuries.
The case made international headlines as the woman tried to commit suicide outside the home of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath after being harassed and turned away by the police.
Last year, she was seriously injured after a car she was travelling in was rammed by a truck with blacked-out number plates, killing two of her aunts, in a case that is being separately investigated.
(With Agency Inputs ).
