Bulandshahr gangrape case: Police unresponsive, inappropriate behaviour of doctors,,family threatens suicide if culprits are not caught

Bulandshahr August 2:Three days after a woman and her teen daughter were gang-raped after being dragged out of their car in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr, the family has threatened suicide if the attackers are not punished.The husband and father of the Bulandshahr gangrape victims has threatened suicide if the attackers are not hanged.

The family was driving to a funeral in Bulandshahr, around 65 km from Delhi, on Friday night when their car was waylaid by a gang of robbers around 1.30 am.

The family stopped when their car was hit by an iron rod. The gang took over the car at gunpoint and drove it to a swamp. They robbed the family, beat up the three men in the car and took them to the fields, leaving the women in the car.

Anguished over police response to his distress calls from the scene of the crime on Friday, he alleged that the control room line remained busy for at least 20 minutes when he tried it for help during the night of the incident.

The man was travelling with his wife, daughter, sister-in-law and nephew on the night of the assault along the highway in Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh.

Five men held him hostage at gunpoint when he got down from his car to inspect a suspected fault, he said.

They tied him and took him to a field, leaving the women behind in the car. The attackers then beat him up with rods, hammers and with the stock of their gun, he alleged, showing his wounds.

Later, they drove the car into the field. The men then stripped his wife and teenage daughter, robbed them of their jewellery and raped them, he said. They threatened to shoot him when he pleaded not to violate his wife and daughter, he alleged.

The gang left after nearly three hours.

A police patrol car also drove past the field while the men were committing the rapes, according to the male relative. With their mouths gagged, the victims couldn’t shout for help.

Police arrived 20 minutes after he was able to call the senior superintendent. The family, however, alleged that officers displayed indifference when they took the victims for medical examination the next day.

They offered no food or medicines to the teenage victim, who he said was running a high fever. Nor were the police able to secure the crime scene in time, he alleged.

Investigators secured the victims’ belongings from the field only after news stations showed them still lying scattered. Official sources told India Today TV that there was hardly any police presence on the highway on Friday night.

Some barricades placed on the roads were also unguarded, they said. Three suspects have so far been arrested.

Facing anger and condemnation, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav set a 24-hour deadline for the arrest of all the attackers, which ended yesterday.

The family has not returned to their home in Noida. “How can we face our neighbours and friends? We have lived in the locality for 18 years…everyone knows what happened. We went to a friend’s house but he has now asked us to leave. We have nowhere to go…”