By Ila Ananya
In an extremely horrifying case, a special court in Delhi has ordered an FIR against a woman investigating officer for sexually assaulting a minor girl in an attempt to create false evidence. The 13-year-old girl had been assaulted by her teacher, Manoj Rathi, in August 2016, and according to reports, the investigating officer (IO) wanted to create false evidence to help Rathi. Thankfully, the Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav dismissed the teacher’s bail petition.
“Today, separate directions have been given for lodging of FIR against the IO in this case for having committed penetrative sexual assault upon the child victim and creating false evidence,” Yadav reportedly said.
In her complaint, the girl said that the officer had forced her to undergo medical re-examination, even though this re-examination technically shouldn’t have been done without the permission of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) or the special court.
The IO even reportedly threatened to falsely implicate the girl’s father in the case. Some others have reported that such an FIR against her father was indeed filed, based on a complaint filed by Rathi himself. There are also reports about how Rathi had posed as the girl’s father and written a ‘confession’ letter claiming that he had sexually assaulted his daughter repeatedly. The letter was then submitted to the police by the school staff based on which the FIR was filed.
This wasn’t all. The girl reportedly told the court that she was first sexually assaulted by the IO, who then took her to a hospital where she was subjected to an internal medical examination even though she didn’t consent to it. According to The Indian Express, the complaint filed by the survivor’s mother states, “All these acts were done by the doctors on the instruction of the SI…when the complainant resisted, she was given slaps and beatings and was asked to sign on some blank documents.”
We have always heard of how the police has made it difficult for survivors of assault to lodge complaints. This time though, it infuriatingly isn’t only about lodging a complaint, but subjecting the minor survivor to further assault to help the accused.