A fact finding team of Pragatisheel Mahila Sangathan (PMS) Delhi visited Unnao Dist. in Uttar Pradesh on the 15^th and 16^th of April 2018. Advocate Shobha( President of PMS Delhi), Adv. Poonam (General Secretary, PMS Delhi) and Adv. Mamta (member, PMS Delhi) were its members. The PMS Delhi decided to send this team to Unnao to get a deeper understanding of the facts and sequence of events regarding the news of rape of a minor by MLA Kuldeep Singh and the killing of her father being reported in the newspapers and in other media. Along with meeting the survivor and her family, this team also met the relatives of the accused MLA and the villagers of the concerned Makhi village of Dist. Unnao. The team also spoke to police officers, lawyers and journalists in Unnao city in this regard. The issues which emerged in this two day study by the PMS team are presented here.

Meeting with the Survivor and her Relatives:-

The PMS team reached green Palace Hotel in Unnao city at around 11.30 am on the 15^th of April. After the survivor’s father was killed in jail on the 9^th of April2018, the officers of District administration placed the girl and her entire family in this hotel for providing them security. When the PMS team asked the Dist. administration authorities present in the hotel for permission to speak to the survivor and her family, they instructed us to get the permission of the Dist. Commissioner. A large number of media persons were present at the hotel and the PMS team shared the purpose of its visit with them. On reaching the office of the DC, we learnt that he was in his home and we were able to obtain his permission over the phone. He also assured us that he would inform the dist authorities at the Hotel accordingly. However, when we returned to the hotel, a lady SDM present there informed us in writing that the survivor had refused to meet anyone at that time and she asked us to return after two hours. When the Team returned to the Hotel at around 5pm we learnt that the administration had shifted the survivor and her family from there. Media persons present told us that she had been taken with her family to the Circuit House of the Irrigation Dept. which was in Unnao itself. We reached this place at5.30 and sought the permission of the SDM present there to meet the survivor. This was allowed at around 6pm and we found that the survivor was staying at the place along with her mother, paternal grandmother(dadi),her four sisters and brother and her paternal uncle and aunt (chacha and chachi).

Description of Events by the Survivor:-

The survivor said she had stayed with her maternal uncle at Rai Baraielly and studied upto class 4. She left studies around 5to 6 years earlier and then began staying with her parents at her home in Makhi village in Dist. Unnao. They had family ties with Shashi Singh and she used to go to her house. The girl told the team that everyone in her family considered the MLA to be very good and ever since she had come to her parents’ home from her maternal uncle’s home she  had been hearing that ‘’daddu’’ is a very good person. The girl further told us that on 11^th June 2017, Shubham Singh (son of Shashi Singh) and one-two other boys pulled her into a vehicle and took her to various places and did ‘’galat kaam’’ with her (The survivor has explained to the team in detail about the sexual violence on her by the MLA as well as the incidents of rape on her between 11^th June to 20^th June, 2017 but we are not sharing it as the matter is pending investigation before the CBI). She further said that on 20^th June 2018 she was found from Aurraya by Makhi police and was kept at the Mahila Thana from 20^th June to 30^th June 2017. She said that on 30^th June 2017 she came to her ‘’çhacha’in Delhi. The survivor said to the Team that she understood that the MLA had got her abducted by the boys so that no one should get to know what he himself had done and with this she herself became more frightened that when the MLA could get this done, he could get anything done. She said that due to her fear of the MLA and his goons she hid herself and came to Delhi and started staying in Delhi because those who had executed the abduction of 20^th June 2017 were free and were looking for her. In August 2017,gathering courage, the survivor told her ‘’chachi’’ Pushpa, about her sexual exploitation by the MLA. Pushpa told husband Mahesh (the survivor’s chacha ). The Uncle wrote letters to various institutions and authorities about the sexual exploitation of the survivor by Kuldeep Singh and appealed for justice. The survivor said that on 17^th August 2017, with a letter asking for justice, she met Yogi Adityanath with her chachi Pushpa at his janta durbar at Lucknow. The Chief Minister assured the survivor and her chachi that justice would be done to them. The girl told the team, that however, no justice was done. When they did not get justice from anywhere, then in February 2018, the girl’s mother filed a petition under Section 156 of Cr. P.C. before the Chief Judicial Magistrate at Unnao for a direction for lodging a FIR against Kuldeep Singh and Shashi Singh.

The survivor told us that in the meantime her father had started staying with her chacha in Delhi. The survivor said that the MLA had got many cases lodged against her father and her chacha. The Chacha was the only educated person in the familyand hence case after case was filed against him till he was forced to leave Unnao and since 2000 he was living in Delhi. Her father was also staying with him. The survivor’s Dadi was very ill and hence her chacha and chichi had kept the Dadi in dDelhi with themselves in order to get her treated. When the Dadi’s health improved she was sent back to the village Makhi and her medicines were sent by courier.  The hearing of the case filed under Section 156 was scheduled for 3^rd April 2018. The survivor’s father, Pappu Singh, came to Unnao town to meet his wife Asha (the survivor’s mother) as the latter had come to the Court located in Unnao to attend the court date and from there went to his house in Village Makhi. The survivor told the team that when they heard about her father being beaten up on 3^rd April she came to  the village along with her chacha-chachi. Her father’s health was very bad because he had been badly beaten up and had also been sent to jail. On 8^th April 2018 the survivor again went to Lucknow with her chachi to meet Chief minister Yogi but security officers stationed outside his office did not allow them to meet the CM. The survivor said that she then poured oil upon herself and set herself on fire. The police present there saved her and the survivor showed the PMS team the burn injuries she had sustained on her person. She further stated that her father died on 9^th April and there were at least 75 marks of injury on and inside his body and his intestines were also torn.

While speaking to the PMS team, the survivor was weeping repeatedly and appeared to be broken. The survivor kept saying that the MLA got my father killed. She said that the jailor of Unnao is threatening the people of the village against giving evidence. Atul, the brother of the MLA, beat up the father and was collecting people to give false witness against the survivor.  She further said that if she had not complained against the (‘’kukaram’’) wrong act done by the MLA, my father would have been alive. She further said that because she had given a written complaint against the MLA and asked for action, that is why the MLA and his family sent threats to the survivor’s family that when Pappu Singh (i.e. the survivor’s father) comes this time we will parade him naked. The survivor child was crying and repeatedly saying that all those who exploited me are roaming free and I have not got justice. The MLA will get us all killed. Get me Justice. I have become the guilty of my Father’s death, had I not complained he would not have been killed. The girl also said that had the administration supported me all this would not have happened.  She said that if anyone speaks against the MLA and his brother Atul Singh in the village, he is beaten up by burning tyres.

The child also said that another chacha(uncle) named Tinku is missing since 6^th April. She said that her own medical was done on 23^rd or 24^th June last year and the CBI has got her medical examination repeated on 14^th april2018. She said that all the officers of the police refused to register her FIR against the MLA and she has been going from pillar to post for Justice.

Facts brought to light by the Chachi (Pushpa):-

While speaking to the survivor we also spoke to her chachi who was also present there. It was to this person that the survivor had first told of her sexual exploitation by the MLA. Pushpa said that on 17^th August 2017 she and the survivor had gone to the CM’s durbar and he had assured justice. Letters were given to several authorities regarding the act of the MLA but when no action was forth coming from any quarter, only then a petition was filed under Sec. 156 CRPC in February 2018 before the court in Unnao.  She said that when they heard of the beating of the survivor’s father on 3^rd April this year ,she along with her husband and the survivor went to Unnao from Delhi on the same day. She said she accompanied the survivor to the CM’s office at Lucknow on 8^th April but they were neither taken to the CM nor to any other official. When they were not allowed to meet any official then the survivor poured oil over herself and set herself on fire. She said that she was unaware that the child had carried oil with her. She said that when the girl tried to commit suicide the security posted in the place saved her.

She also told the team that the MLA is exploiting lot of people especially in connection with women. She expressed her belief that the CBI would expose the crimes of theMLA.

Description by Paternal grandmother  (Dadi) of the survivor:-

The 65 year old Dadi of the survivor told us that her family and the family of the MLA are of same caste i.e. Rajput. She and the survivors elder sister aged 19 years and her two younger sisters together told us that on 3^rd April, one Vinod Mishra jumped in from the roof of their house in Makhi village , unbolted the door and then Vinod Mishra and many other goons who worked for the MLA and his brother, pulled their father out of the house and beat him with lathis and rifle butts. The aged mother (i.e. dadi of survivor) and the daughters of the beaten man kept imploring that the beating should stop. When the daughters tried to shield his body they were pushed away.  When the employee (of the chacha) who had accompanied Pappu Singh from Delhi tried to intervene, he was also beaten. The Dadi asserted that before her eyes her son was beaten brutally by Atul Singh and others. She said the MLA had punished Pappu Singh for meeting his aged mother and his children.

Version of Asha, mother of the survivor:-

Asha Singh, the mother of the survivor, said that when her husband Pappu Singh met her in the court in Unnao on 3^rd April, he said he would go home to meet his mother and the children. She also said her husband had earlier visited the village on the Chedan festival and met the children. He said on 3^rd that I very much want to meet the children and I will go to the village today. She also said that her eldest daughter has studied upto 8^th Std, one daughter is studying in 7^th std and another in 4^th std.   The girl who is in 4^th std is studying in a school located in the village Makhi and owned by the MLA.

She also clarified that had we not complained against MLA Kuldeep, there would not have been enemity. The MLA used to threaten that finish off all this and she will be married off. She also said that when the survivor went missing on 11^th June 2017, even then a person connected with the MLA was involved. She also said that though the survivor was a minor, she was kept in the mahila thana for ten days. She also informed us that the family has common agricultural land which is given on batai and the household runs on that small income. Now the whole family has been orphaned by her husband’s death. The survivor has been sent to her uncle (chacha) so that she remain secure.

Mahesh Singh-Chacha of the children:-

Chacha Mahesh Singh said that he is in Delhi since the past 17-18 years.  He has studied upto graduation.  His father was a fitter and worked in a private company. His household runs on the income coming from the family fields. The main reason for his shifting to Delhi was the false cases lodged against him by the MLA and his family. The police and administration were lodging falsecases against him and his brother Pappu at the behest of the MLA and his family. He said around 29 cases lodged against him are over and he has been exonerated in all of them The papers in this connection are in Delhi and he offered to give copies of them to the team later. He said that some fresh cases were made against him and his brother in October 2017, in some of which closure report has been filed and in others the Lucknow bench has issued stay. He said that in August 2017 his wife informed him of the sexual exploitation of the survivor by the MLA. He wrote letters to many institutions to get justice for the child. On 17^th August 2017 when his wife and the survivor went to the Chief Minister’s durbar with the letter of appeal it was sent to the Circle Officer Makhi. After this, rather than the police of Makhi taking action against the MLA, false cases were lodged against him and his brother Pappu.

In February 2018 the survivor’s mother, Asha Singh,filed a petition under Sec.156 against the MLA in the Unnao court. Mahesh singh said that his brother pappu was staying with him in Delhi. He sent his brother to Unnao along with an employee on 3^rd April for the hearing in the Court and also to take the medicines for their ailing mother. When he heard about the beating up of his brother, he came from Delhi to Unnao and met the MLA’s brother Atul who said to him that he was giving Prasad and that if Mahesh came he too would be given the same. Mahesh informed the team that he and his brother started getting threatened ever since the letter of the CM of 17^th April 2017 reached the CO of the area.

The chacha said that he along with his two elder brothers, and his cousin ,were part of the MLA’s family. Hs elder brother Guddu used to work as a contractor along with the MLA. Guddu had died, but the family took no action after his death as they did not see any conspiracy in it. He also informed that his cousin had recently been in charge of the work of the MLA’s brother’s wife in the recent elections for pradhan post.He also informed us that this time when he filled the name of his own mother for elections for the post of pradhan, the MLA told him that Atul Singh’s wife is also standing for this post so you should take back your mother’s form. Mahesh took back the form.He said there was no bitterness in his relation with the MLA or the latter’s family. It was immediately after CM Yogi’s letter, in which the survivor had accused the MLA of rape and prayed for justice, reached the Circle Officer, that from October 2017 the move to entangle him in false cases began again. He also said that the mother of the MLA was a good and kind person. She used to run a primary school and until her death in 2016 everything was fine. The MLA and his brother Atul did not live permanently in the village. The families of both, including wives and children, stayed at Unnao . The MLA came to the village over the weekends. He also said that there are few girls of the village who are missing since quite some time. He said that one more child was sexually assaulted, but the child is motherless and the father, in the face of his poverty and lack of resources, accepted that she be married off and sent out of the village.

The chacha of the survivor underlined that he had established himself in Delhi in the last 20 years. If I  had a criminal bent, I would have committed crimes everywhere. He said I am fighting for justice. He said we did not complain to anyone when our elder brother Guddu Singh died. He said that on 3^rd April when Pappu Singh reached the Police station in an injured condition, the police at the behest of the MLA registered a property dispute in the name of their own cousin and sent pappu Singh to jail. He said that the father, Shri Jang Bahadur, of the  cousin in question (Tinku), had given a statement before everyone that there was no property dispute between the families. The same Tinku is now missing for the past many days according to Mahesh Singh.

During all this talk, the mother and Dadi of the survivor kept crying and saying we will be killed and our lives are in danger.

Discussions with the Residents of Village Makhi:-

The PMS team reached Makhi on 16^th April 2018.Near the Aryabrat Gramin bank in the village, the Team spoke to the women in the surrounding houses and to the villagers in the nearby shops. One lady said  MLA Bhaiya is innocent. MLA Bhaiya has been falsely trapped and the girl who has accused him of rape is characterless and had run away with boys and was found after 10 days. Another woman in the same family spoke in the same vein. We asked them what else they knew about the girl; they replied that we do not know anything and we get no time to spare from housework. The charge on MLA Bhaiya is wrong. Another woman living close by said she was busy in looking after her fatherless family and was unaware of what is going on in the village. We moved a little ahead into the village and met a knot of people who said that the village is very big. There are 12 khedas and 22 tolas(areas) and has about 10,000 voters. He said you are now standing in gadi mohalla.The incident under discussion took place in Sarai mohalla. The MLA is a very good person. Atul Singh has beaten the father of the survivor but the charge of rape on the MLA is totally false. He is 50-55 years of age, why would he do such a thing. If he had to do something like this he could have gone to Delhi, Mumbai and done it all. He has no dearth of money. The whole village knows how many times this girl has run away from home. The girl’s father and her uncle Mahesh Singh are very bad people and are history sheeters. As the PMS team was going to walk ahead, one youth said that he was a distant relative of the survivor’s father. He said the survivor is a characterless girl  and when she ran away it was the MLA who ensured she was found.

Each and every person in the village knows about the girl running away. The MLA’s brother, people said, intervened in a family quarrel on 3^rd April and may have given one or two slaps while mediating in the dispute. The MLA ji is a very good man, they all said. The knot of people mentioned earlier, told the team that Gadi mohalla where you are now standing , is an opposer of the MLA in the sense that in every election it is understood that the people of Sarai mohalla and those of Gadi mohalla will fight the elections separately and neither will go to the other mohalla to ask for votes. Still, they said, we are saying the MLA is not guilty, One of them said that because this issue is one of the izzat of Makhi, and of Makhi’s dignity and status (man,samman) that is why everyone is standing on the side of the MLA. They told us, you get justice for the MLA.

Discussion in Sarai Mohalla:-

In this mohalla, the MLA’s house is situated inTakia and in the same premises are an intermediate school and a temple. The survivor’s house and also Shashi Singh’s house are nearby. There is heavy police deployment in this area. One villager told us that they are poor people. The MLA is a very good person. Every weekend he resolves the problems of 5000 people, dealing courteously and with dignity. He lovingly makes people sit down and have some refreshments and he does justice on their issues. The girl is making a false allegation of rape. Our MLA is god like.

Talk with the relatives of the MLA:-

When the PMS team reached the MLA’s house 10-15 people were present there, including two women. The women told the team that no one was recording their opinion and everyone was terming the MLA a rapist. The MLA’s maternal grandfather had established a reputation 100-150 years earlier and now this status was being besmirched.  Do not ask us, they said, ask the villagers what the MLA means to them. One said that she too was a woman and had felt very hurt that another woman had maligned an innocent member of her family. The women said that the MLA has two daughters. At the age of 21 years he was elected unopposed as an MLA and has served 4 terms. Another woman of the same family told us that the survivor’s chacha Mahesh had asked the MLA’s wife to tell him how long she had known the MLA. He himself asserted that he had known the MLA for 41 years. The lady said to the team that it was wrong to suggest that a couple who had been married for 26 years did not know everything about each other. While she agreed that woen should be listened to, it did not mean that men should not get a hearing and false allegations could be made against them.

The day’s newspapers were lying there and one boy picked up the Amar Ujala which featured an interview with the Team. We said we had spoken on the basis of what we had read and had come to find out the facts.Thereupon one of the MLA’s supporters said that the girl’s family are all goondas. There are 19 cases on the uncle and an encounter was ordered in 1995 itself but he ran away to delhi.

Another supporter, a Muslim, clarified that the MLA was the MLA of Banger Mau and not of the area in which the Makhi village is situated. He said that the people sitting with me here are also Muslims but the MLA takes care of us all. Another named Kunnu Mishra told the team that while Mahesh was a history sheeter, Pappu was a drunkard and also addicted to smack. He asserted that e could walk around the village but would not find another girl who said that the MLA even raised his eyes when he spoke to her. He repeated the age of the MLA and the incident of the girl running away which, as we pointed out, every single person in the village knows. He additionally said that when the girl was found in 2017, she recorded a statement under Sec 164 and in that she did not name the MLA. When we asked why the girl was falsely implicating the MLA he said he did not know but it must be some deep political conspiracy. However, he could not name any possible conspirator.  However he did tell us that no one from the girl’s family had fought an election whereas Kuldeep was an MLA since the age of 32 years.

Discussion at the Inter College Makhi:-

This college is situated within the boundary of the MLA’s house. We met the Principal who told s she has been associated with the college since 2014. Before that the MLA’s mother ran a primary school. This school reached inter level in 2016 and was also recognized by the UP Board. Around 1000 students study here, many from the same village aand children also come from 10 kms away as there are bus facilities with the school. There are both B-Ed and non B Ed teachers employed, many from the same village and teachers are paid 2500-6000 rupees per month. The finances of the schooland its other problems are looked after by the MLA. The Principal stated that the survivor was lying and added that if one daughter of the house had been raped would the younger sister attend the school run by the same MLA till 2^nd April 2018? We equested her to allow us to meet the teachers, whereupon she called around 7-8 of them Of these 2 said that they were from the survivor’s family and had been teaching for the past seven years. Referring to the survivor they said we think the girl appearing on TV with her face covered must be another person because this girl(the survivor) does not know how to speak and the person on TV was fluent. Another teacher praised the MLA and wondered if other cases of rape were also based on false charges.  She felt the girl was being pressurized by someone to make the false complaint. She said the MLA had saved Shasi Singh (Shubham’s mother). The Principal asked one of the teachers to tell us what the survivor’s family had done to hers but the latter simply said there was some dispute among the men many years earlier.

Talk with other Villagers:-

The team met other villager in the Dalit tola. They are all working as agricultural labourers. Some of the men said that we are poor people and do not know what Mahesh and Pappu Singh were like. They did not know the survivor either but the MLA was a very good man. While we were speaking two people who were present in the MLA’s house arrived there as also did another woman from the village.  Then everyone together repeated that the MLA is a good man and there will be problem now because he is under arrest and there will be no one to solve our disputes. Another youth spoke up condemning Pappu Singh and said that he had attacked me with a rifle butt sometime back. When asked why the attack occurred, he said there was some dispute. One of the persons from the MLA’s house said that after this we will have to tell the boys to maintain a distance from girls.

Talk with the Lawyer of the Survivor:-

On 15^th April, we could meet the survivor’s lawyer. He said that Asha Singh had filed the petition under Sec156 on 12^th Feb2018. Earlier, on 11^th June 2017,she had filed a missing report of her daughter at Makhi police station, naming Shubham singh and Avdesh Tiwari. The girl was found on 20^th June in Aurayya and the two boys were named in the FIR. On 22^nd June the survivor made a statement under Sec 164 and in this the names of Shubham Singh’s mother and sister also figured along with the name of Brajesh Yadav. However the charge sheet filed bythe police named Shubham,Avdesh and Brajesh but did not name Shashi Singh and her daughter. He also specified that the statement under Sec 164 only pertained to the events covered by the FIR of 11^th June 2017. He also said that in the proceedings on the case on Sec 156 which took place on 3^rd April, Shashi Singh had represented through her lawyer that she wished to proceede against the survivor under Sec 340, accusing her of lodging a false report. The application was accepted and the date of 12^th April was given. He also said that thepolice have lodged an FIR on the statement of Asha Singh on 11^th April 2018 and hence the proceedings under Sec 156 are over.

Addl. PS In Charge:-

On 16^th April, the team met the CO Shri vivek ranjan. He told us that the CO and the entire force of the police station have been suspended. He knew that there were many cases on Mahesh Singh and Pappu Singh but he could not tell the status of those complaints though he knew they pertained to murder and dacoity  and that both were history sheeters. In addition he said that apart from political complaints there were only two cases against the MLA Kuldeep singh- one the current one and another several years old.  He repeated the position we had heard in the area, that the survivor had not named the MLA in her statement under section 164. The police had not gone to the village to arrest Pappu Singh he said, rather he was brought here by the villagers  and his own cousin, Tinku Singh, lodged a complaint of a dispute. We got Pappu Singh admitted to the hospital. After his death, an FIR was lodged and four people were arrested. Probably the doctor could not assess Pappu Singh’s health properly and while he was in jail his health deteriorated and he died. He also told us that many girls contract marriages of their choice and their parents lodge missing reports in the police station. He added that Guddu singh and Mahesh Singh, both brothers of Pappu Singh, as well as Pappu himself were part of the MLA’s team for a long time.

Comments of the PMS Team:-

1. We asked Asha Singh whether her husband was addicted to alcohol and took drugs, but she said that he took alcohol sometimes and never took drugs.
2. The team understands that the statement of the girl under Sec 164 recorded last June pertains to the abduction of the girl and she described events between 11^th June 2017 and 20 th June 2017.
3. The team thinks to say that the MLA could not have raped the girl because he was 50 years of age, was affluent or because the girl’s father or uncle were history sheeters are illogical statements.
4. The PMS team understands that feudal forces have strong roots in the village. Kuldeep Sing is a four time MLA and has changed several parties. In the village it makes no difference that he is not even the MLA of this area or which party he is with. From the time of his grandfather, the MLA’s family have been the big landlords in this village.He and his brother Atul are the centres of power in the village and solve all the village disputes in their durbar. The brothers are known to get people beaten. The team found that people in the village were upset at the MLA’s arrest because they did not know how their disputes would be solved now.

 

On the basis of the facts we found, the team has reached the following conclusions:

1. The MLA and his brother are from an established feudal family and rule over the village. They settle disputes, dispense justice. The brother Atul is an accused in a case of the killing of a senior police officer. The various cases lodged against Pappu Singh and Mahesh Singh seem to be at the instigation of the MLA and his brother. The police works on the side of these powerful in the village. An example is the case lodged against Pappu Singh on 3^rd April though he was badly injured. No attempt was made to record his statement and lodge any case on that basis.
2. While much is being projected about the fact that the statement of the survivor under Sec164 last June does not name the MLA, we bring on record that the statement pertains to the case of abduction. Anyway in her statement she involved Shashi Singh and her daughter, but the FIR lodged on the basis of the statement does not carry these names and neither does the police chargesheet have them.
3. The patriarchal feudal values are so entrenched in the village that not only can the character of the survivor be maligned, her family terrorized and her father killed by beating, the reputation of the MLA accused of rape becomes a question of the reputation of the village! In feudal patriarchal India a rape survivor has to again and again prove the truth of her allegation, while repeatedly the issue of sexual assault is modified into an issue of the victim being a characterless person. It is quite clear that a woman or girl fighting for justice in India, there are many painful challenges to overcome and these are even more severe in the rural areas especially where the powerful feudal are involved.  This is even more so when those guilty of sexual assault are politically powerful like the MLA  or his cohorts. That is the only explanation of why the accused in the abduction of 11^th June2017 got bail though a minor is involved and though the charges are of abduction and rape,and also why the case of rape against the MLA could only be lodged after her father was beatenup, died in jail and there was a public hue and cry.
4. We found that the police describes the cases lodged against the MLA as ‘political’’, but when cases are lodged against ordinary people under the same sections, they are termed history sheeters.

 

Recommendations

 

1. The PMS team thinks that the CBI team currently enquiring into the case should conduct a full study of the events consequent to 4^th June 2017. The facts behind the cases lodged against the relatives of the survivor as also the circumstances in which they were lodged should be studied. The PMS demands that an enquiry should be conducted into why the minor was lodged in a mahila thana between 20^th and 30^th of June 2017. If the UP Govt. des not have provision of shelter homes for women the same should immediately be provided for.

 

2. PMS also demands investigation on why the concerned officials did not inform the parents about the custody of survivor after she was recovered from Aurria by the Police. PMS also demands investigation by the concerned senior officials as to why the date of recording of statement under Section 164 Cr.P.C. (recorded on 22^nd June 2017) was not informed to the parents of the survivor.

 

3. PMS demands the constitution of Child Welfare Committees regarding custody of minor victims in Uttar Pradesh State.

 

The team also feels that the trial of the case should be conducted not in Unnao but in Delhi because the survivor resides in Delhi.

In view of the kind of comments that have emerged regarding the statement under Sec 164, the PMS team suggests that all judicial officers should be instructed that when recording statement under this section, they should ask the women/children after the statement is recorded in the context of the current case, whether they have ever suffered sexual assault or any other type of sexual harassment before this or apart from the incident that they have recounted.

Poonam (Gen sec, PMS Delhi),

Shobha (President PMS Delhi),

Mamta (member PMS Delhi)

New delhi, 21^st April 2018s