Hamirpur horror: FIR of abetment to suicide after gang-rape victim’s father ends life

KANPUR A day after the father of a deceased gangrape victim allegedly ended his life in UP’s Hamirpur district on Wednesday, the police booked a brick kiln contractor’s wife and daughter for abetment to suicide. The FIR was registered against Nirmala, wife of a brick kiln contractor Ram Roop Nishad and their daughter, under Section 306 of the IPC, said police.
The deceased was the father of one of the two maternal sisters, aged 14 and 15, who were found hanging in a village in Kanpur district on February 29 after being gangraped. He was the complainant in the case of gangrape and suicide of the two girls lodged with Ghatampur police in Kanpur.
According to his kin, the man allegedly died by suicide as the accused’s family members were pressurising him to withdraw the gangrape case. The body was found hanging from a Babool tree late on Wednesday noon, about two km away from his dwelling. He had left the house without telling anyone and his family found the body during the search.
The girls’ family members had earlier alleged that the minors were gang-raped a few days before their deaths by the contractor of the brick kiln, Ram Roop, 48, his son Raju, 18, and nephew Sanjay, 19. The victims and the accused hailed from the same village in adjoining Hamirpur, the police said.
The accused had also made a video of the act to blackmail the girls, which was recovered during investigation, the police said. The bodies were recovered on February 29 and all the three accused were arrested by Kanpur police the same day. They were booked under IPC sections 376D (gang rape), 306 (abetment to suicide) and the Protection Of Children Against Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.
The question arose as to why the family was not provided security as it was allegedly under immense pressure to withdraw the case.
On Tuesday, Nirmala had created a ruckus in Hamirpur and fought with the father of one girl, pressuring him to withdraw the case, the family told police. Subsequently, SHO of Sisolar police station, Sanjay Singh, was removed for dereliction of duty.
The issue acquired political overtones as Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi both questioning the “BJP government’s failure in checking the significant rise in gender violence and injustice.”
In a post on X, Priyanka stated: “Two minor girls, who were victims of gang rape, committed suicide. Now, the father of one of these girls has also committed suicide. Allegation is pressure was being mounted on him to compromise. It has become a norm to destroy the families of victims in Uttar Pradesh. In this lawlessness, being a woman has become a crime, there is no semblance of law…”
Quoting the incident, Rahul Gandhi wrote on X: “Demanding justice in double engine government is considered a double crime. In BJP-ruled states, victims and their families are treated like enemies to protect a ‘fabricated image’. Raise your voice against this horrific injustice or else this tyranny will reach you too.”