Kannauj rape case: Victim's aunt held for helping accused

Kannauj: The aunt of the minor girl, who was allegedly raped by former block head Nawab Singh Yadav at a private college here, has been arrested, police said on Wednesday.

According to a senior police officer, the girl's aunt, who had allegedly taken the 15-year-old to the college where Yadav raped her on the night of August 11-12, was held on Tuesday.

The case has triggered a political slugfest between the opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) and the ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh, which has alleged that the accused was a former block chief and close aide of SP leader Dimple Yadav when she was the Lok Sabha MP from Kannauj.

The SP has, however, distanced itself from Yadav, who was arrested on August 12 in connection with the case.

"A Special Operations Group (SOG) of the police has arrested the girl's aunt, who was absconding for seven days, from the Tirwa area of Kannauj," Superintendent of Police (SP) Amit Kumar Anand said.

"During interrogation, the girl's aunt claimed that Nawab Singh Yadav's brother lured her with money to retract her statement, skip medical test (of the girl). She also claimed to have been pressured to name other people and say that the incident is a conspiracy in order to influence the course of the investigation," SP Anand said.

According to SP Anand, the girl's aunt also told the police that she has known Yadav for five-six years and has close relations with him.

"Yadav had called the girl to his college on the night of August 11, when he molested and raped her. The victim dialled the emergency number 112 from her aunt's mobile and informed the police, who immediately reached the spot and arrested Yadav, who was later sent to jail," the police officer said.

Yadav is the manager of the private college, where he called the girl and her aunt on the night of August 11 on the pretext of helping the teenager get a job, the police had earlier said.

SP Anand said a case has been registered against the girl's aunt under section 61/2 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and relevant sections of the POCSO Act for helping the alleged rape accused Yadav.

She will be produced in the court later in the day, he added.

Meanwhile, the district administration has launched an investigation into the legality of the properties held by Yadav, Sub-District Magistrate (Sadar) Ram K Singh said.

"Naib Tehsildar Himanshu Prabhakar, Revenue Inspector Arun Tiwari, Lekhpal Priya Pal, Vijay Kant Shukla, Amit Mishra, Abhishek Dubey and Survey Lekhpal Amit Rai have been given the responsibility of investigating the properties owned by accused Nawab Singh Yadav," Singh said.

On the night of August 11-12, Yadav was arrested on the charge of attempt to rape with the minor at his college here. The next day, medical examination confirmed that the girl was raped and the charge was accordingly added in the FIR, according to the police.