Prayagraj: Sub-Inspector booked for raping Dalit woman who sought police help over threat calls

According to police, the alleged incident took place last Thursday (September 21) when Pandey “forced” the woman to accompany him in his car to identify the person who allegedly made threat calls to her.

The woman, who is married and has a son, in her complaint said that she had gone to a police outpost to complain about getting threat calls from an anonymous caller. The outpost in-charge, S-I Pandey, took her cellphone number and said he would find out the caller. However, according to the woman, Pandey started making random calls to her.

On September 21 afternoon, the woman said that S-I Pandey asked her to come to the police outpost in the evening.

“The woman said that when she was heading towards the police outpost, she came across S-I Pandey, who was seated inside a private car. The S-I told her that he has traced a person who had made the threatening call to her. She alleged that the S-I forced her to sit inside the car and offered her cold drinks laced with sedatives on the way.

The woman said that after consuming cold drinks, she fell unconscious and the S-I then raped her inside the car,” said a police officer involved in the probe.

The woman also said that while returning to the outpost, Pandey who was drunk by then, lost control over the wheels and the car collided with a tree. She was injured and a police team got her admitted to a hospital.

She also alleged that three men, identified as Arjun, Sabhajeet, and Santosh Pandey, along with the S-I started threatening her against filing a rape complaint.

The FIR was registered on September 26 after the woman lodged a complaint with senior officers. The FIR against S-I Pandey has been lodged under IPC sections 328 (causing hurt by means of poison, etc., with intent to commit an offence), 354-D (stalking), 376 (rape), 506 (criminal intimidation) and different sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Arjun, Sabhajeet, and Santosh have also been booked, police said.

“It will be a part of the investigation to find whether any complaint of threat calls was filed on a complaint of the woman,” said a senior police officer, adding that the woman said that she could not immediately file a complaint against the S-I after the alleged incident as she was unwell and could not go to the police station.