Kamal Ghorui
PILIBHIT: Police registered a case against two men for allegedly raping their 17-year-old niece and selling her 16-year-old sister after the girls were left in their care following their mother’s murder and their father’s imprisonment. According to the complaint filed on Friday evening, one maternal uncle raped the girl while the other stood guard, and the pair later allegedly trafficked the younger sister for money.In her written complaint, the older girl said she and her younger sister had gone to stay at their maternal uncles’ home in a village under Barkhera police station during their school summer vacation in June last year. A month later, on July 3, they learnt that their mother had been killed by their father, who was arrested and lodged in jail, leaving the sisters in the care of relatives who, she alleged, later began targeting them. She added that in Sept, her two uncles took her younger sister away, after which her whereabouts remained unknown. The girl said she later overheard them talking on the phone about a monetary deal and came to fear that they had sold the 16-year-old. “After that, I could not find out where my sister was,” she said in her complaint. After her sister was taken away, the abuse turned directly on her, she said. The girl alleged that early in March this year, while she was asleep, her elder uncle entered her room, forcibly removed her clothes and raped her, while the younger uncle stood guard outside the door. She added that the two men later took her to the campus of SP office and forced her to record a video statement saying that she was returning to her parental home of her own free will. “They threatened to kill my sister if I did not say what they wanted,” the girl said.She said she approached relatives for help in filing a complaint, but found no support, and eventually managed to submit one herself.Barkhera SHO Pramendra Kumar told TOI that one of the maternal uncles was also the complainant against the girl’s father in the murder case of her mother. He said the girl declined a medical examination in writing. “We are now waiting for her court statements for further legal action against the two accused,” he said.Police said the complainant’s exact age was still being verified through her educational documents and that, if she was found to be a minor, sections of Pocso Act would be added to the FIR. Kumar said police had also begun tracing clues about the missing younger sister and were questioning the two accused about her whereabouts.(The victim’s identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
