Kanpur: A minor Dalit girl was allegedly
kept in illegal confinement and stripped in the presence of
two women by a boutique owner here, police said on Wednesday night.
When the 13-year-old girl cried and protested, the woman,
at whose house her mother worked as maid, let her go but
"implicated" the duo in an alleged "false" case of theft,
senior police and civil officials said quoting the victim`s
complaint.
While the girl has been released on bail, her mother is
still behind bars.
DIG Ashok Mutha Jain and District Magistrate Mukesh
Meshram told a press conference that the girl`s mother worked
as a maid at the house of Shalini Gujral, a boutique owner, in
Seesamau area here. The minor also used to help her mother in
the work.
A few days ago, when the girl visited Gujral`s house, the
woman accused her of theft and allegedly confined her with the
help of two other women and stripped her after tying her hands
and legs, they said. The woman set her free when she cried and
strongly protested, the victim claimed in a statement before
the DIG.
On January 16, the boutique owner lodged a complaint
against the mother-daughter duo at Fazalganj police station
claiming that they had stolen two rings from her house. The
next day, the police arrested the two, and a court sent the
mother to jail while releasing the girl on bail due to her
minor age.
The teenage girl, however, told the police that the rings
were given to her by Gujral, and her mother later sold them.
The girl claimed that her mother`s employer never talked about
the rings as they continued to work there.
The DIG said that considering the seriousness of the
allegations, the girl`s statement has been recorded before a
woman magistrate.
A police inspector has been suspended with immediate
effect for filing the case without any investigation, he said,
adding the SP (crime) will probe into the incident.
An FIR has been registered against the boutique owner and
the two other women besides filing a case under SC/ST Act.
The matter comes close on the heels of the Banda incident
in which a girl belonging to a backward community was
allegedly raped by a BSP MLA and the Divya case in which a
minor girl died after allegedly being sexually assaulted
inside her school.
PTI
