Author: Manish Sahu
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: December 7, 2013
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/up-moves-court-to-drop-rape-dacoity-case-against-sp-leader/1204445/0
The UP government has moved court for withdrawal of a rape and dacoity case lodged against Samajwadi Party's Kasganj district unit president Vikram Singh and others registered at Dholna police station in 2006, when Mulayam Singh Yadav was the chief minister.
The application has been moved in an Etah court where the matter is pending.
Vikram Singh, a history-sheeter, alleged that the case against him is politically motivated.
The victim's family, however, claimed that the accused begun pressuring them to retract ever since the Akhilesh government came to power.
"Following the harassment, we left Kasganj and moved to Aligarh," said the victim's husband, who is the complainant in the case.
On September 6, 2006, the Dholna police had registered an FIR against Vikram Singh and 14 others on charges of dacoity and rape. The case was registered on court's direction.
Six days later, the police filed a closure report in the case in a local court of Etah. The complainant, however, lodged a protest against the closure report.
Victim's lawyer Vijay Kumar Saxena said that after the protest application was filed, the court summoned the complainant and recorded his statement.
Later, it also recorded the statement of the rape victim and other witnesses in the case.
He added the court had also later summoned all 15 accused who are yet to appear before the court.
Government counsel Yogendra Kumar said that while the matter was being heard, the state government has moved the withdrawal application in the court. While the court has fixed January 9 as the next date for hearing the application, it has also directed the complainant to file his reply.
According to the complainant, on July 8, 2006, when his two children were playing outside, Vikram Singh and his associates allegedly came to his house with weapons. They attacked him and took the jewellery and money kept in a box. He added the accused also raped his wife after dragging her into a room.
"I knew the accused as they belong to my village and the adjoining village," said the complainant.
He alleged that the police had refused to accept his complaint. He then moved court seeking direction for lodging of the FIR.
When contacted, Vikram Singh said, "Around 20 days before the FIR was registered, my father had expressed his fear in an application sent to then Superintendent of Police of Etah that their opponents were planning to frame the family. The police filed the closure report in six days," added Singh.
He also claimed that when the incident occurred he was not holding any post in the Samajwadi Party. Vikram also confirmed that his two brothers had also been named in the FIR.
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