Chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Buta Singh has strongly criticised the Uttarakhand administration for the manner in which the alleged gangrape of a Dalit girl is being investigated.The commission has given the state administration a week’s time to investigate the case on its merits, failing which it will recommend a probe by a Central agency.Pramod Kumar Gupta, a BJP leader, and the victim’s paternal cousin, Ashok, have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the case that came to light last Friday. The incident had occurred in a hotel on Rajpur Road on April 19. There are three other accused.On Thursday, Buta Singh along with two other members of the commission, Satya Behn and Mrityunjay Naik, was in Dehradun where he met senior officers from the state administration and the police. Buta was particularly hard on the police. “The FIR appears to be manufactured by the police since it carries very little of what the victim has to say. There is an attempt to shield the remaining three accused,” he said. “Instead of the sections of the IPC and the Atrocities Act which can nail the accused, those sections have been applied which will weaken the case. When I asked them why Ashok’s remand was not taken, police said he would die the moment he was touched. Is he a delicate flower or what?”Saying that there was an anti-Dalit conspiracy in Uttarakhand, Buta asked the state authorities to provide security to those who had highlighted the issue and the victim’s family. “The NGO which persuaded the victim to get a case registered is being harassed by the state administration. The protection given to the victim’s father was withdrawn in a day,” he added.
