Chandigarh Police has appointed one woman police officer each in all its three police divisions, central, south and east, exclusively to investigate rape cases. (Representational) Chandigarh Police has appointed one woman police officer each in all its three police divisions, central, south and east, exclusively to investigate rape cases. (Representational) ONCE THEY were the guardians, protectors and even close friends but later they became tormentors. In 73 cases of rape out of the 87 registered between January 1, 2017, and May 15, 2018, the accused were found to be known, relatives and even the victim’s father, revealed Chandigarh Police record. Again, 68 of the 87 cases were registered in 2017 and 18 registered in the first five months of this year. In five cases out of 87, police have filed cancellation reports as police found no substantial evidence against the people booked as alleged by the victims. A senior officer attached to the Rape Crisis Intervention Center, an agency which interacts with every rape victim to provide her counselling, support and even to convince her to reveal the names of suspects, said, “In Chandigarh, we have interacted with each rape victim and concluded that in more than 75 per cent cases, the accused were known to the victims, who take advantage of their closeness with them. Last year, a maternal uncle along with his relative was arrested for raping his 10-year old niece, who delivered a baby, in the month of July 2017. Even in a recent reported rape case, a victim, whose pregnancy was terminated after following all legal and medical procedures, the victim revealed the name of her father for committing crime with her and he was arrested on May 16.” SSP (UT) Nilambri Vijay Jagdale said, “In every case of sexual assault involving allegations of rape, molestation, we recorded the statements of victims’ under Section 164 CrPC before the local magistrates and bound to act according to statements on the basis of our investigation. If we see the consequent reports of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) also, reports suggest that in more than 95 per cent cases of sexual assault, known people of victims were involved in the crime.” A woman police officer, deputed in the southern division of Chandigarh Police for dealing with all rape cases, said, “Contrary to this phenomena and trend, there are cases when victims were molested and raped by strangers. The auto gang rape case, in which one auto driver, Irfan Mohammed, along with his two associates, was arrested for abducting and raping a girl from Dehradun, is one such case. The case was reported in the month of November 2017.” Chandigarh Police has appointed one woman police officer each in all its three police divisions, central, south and east, exclusively to investigate rape cases. For all the latest Chandigarh News, download Indian Express App

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