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Patna,(BiharTimes): When a regional TV channel of north-east showed the footage of mass-molestation of a teenaged girl on July 9 it was alleged by a member of Team Anna that a journalist instigated the mob to strip her. Even the alleged scribe was arrested and another had to made to resign. Whether the allegation by Team Anna member was true or not is subject to investigation yet the fact is that it is on the basis of the same footage that the whole world came to know about the incident.
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In Bihar’s capital, Patna, the case is something very different. Here a private television channel had handed over a CD to the police of the alleged gang-rape of a high school girl by five boys, some of them classmates, yet the police took no action reportedly on the plea that the victim has not filed an FIR.
The incident took place way back on July 12 but it could come to light almost 10 days later when one of the local channels (Aryan) showed the clippings made by none else but the alleged rapists themselves and distributed them in the market.
One of the BiharTimes readers even wrote about the incident in Viewers’ Voice column. Yet none of the print media dared to publish the news till July 25 when Hindustan Times made it a front page item.
But before this, women rights group led by Kanchan Bala and others on July 23 (Monday) night took out a candle light procession in Patna to demand the arrest of the five boys, said to be the wards of influential government officials.
It was upon this that the State Women Rights Commission took cognizance of the case and one of its members, Chandramukhi Devi, on Tuesday (July 24) recorded the statement of the victim and also sought a clarification from DGP, Abhayanand, as to why the police had shown insensitivity in the case when the CD was submitted to the police a week ago by a TV channel.
The story is that five boys of a well-known school of Patna gangraped a girl and later uploaded the entire footage on the internet and shared it via MMS and CD print for a price. The footage spread even as the Patna Police remained silent.
As the family was reluctant to file FIR the police did not take action suo motu or on third person complaint, nor did they take action against the circulation of pornographic film under the relevant act. Sources said that the outgoing SP Kim, just before her transfer to Katihar, probed the case but shelved it for lack of evidence.
The delay has diluted the case as the victim has not undergone any medical examination, which is necessary to collect evidence to book the accuse in the rape cases. She reportedly told the Commission that she was gangraped by five boys at a house after being called by her boyfriend to the location.
The victim has named three of them while one of them is her boyfriend. But she has failed to give the name of the fifth.Incidentally, according to the reports, two of the boys have hastily been issued transfer certificates by the school authorities after they came to know the news through TV channel.
The victim has admitted to have association with one of the boys for long. She said that she had visited the Rajvanshi nagar house, where the incident took place, on being called by him. Her boyfriend reportedly asked her to meet him as he was going out.
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