News APP

NewsApp (Free)

Read news as it happens
Download NewsApp

Available on  gplay

This article was first published 19 years ago
Rediff.com  » News » Delhi police frames man in rape case

Delhi police frames man in rape case

Source: PTI
September 30, 2004 23:56 IST
Get Rediff News in your Inbox:

A court in Delhi has severely indicted the police for framing a man in over a dozen cases.

"He (Prempal) is innocent... The police torture converted him into a living corpse," Additional Sessions Judge S N Dhingra said.

"It is a case that shows that police force has persons of criminal character in it, who are out to damage the whole institution.

"It is recommended that all police officials involved in framing Prempal in various cases be given exemplary punishment and Prempal be adequately compensated for loss of valuable years of his life, wrongful imprisonment for several years and harassment for 15 years and physical and mental torture.

"This is a glaring example that poor in this country have no say and if they cry for justice it falls on deaf ears. They are made to suffer and pay by their life and liberty, when they complain against police," the court observed.

The police had charged Prempal, a resident of Sangam Vihar in south Delhi, with raping a seven-year-old on April 21, 2002, when she was sleeping in the courtyard of her house.

The court noticed a lot of contradictions in the statement of the victim and her parents, leading it to observe that they were parroting the police version.

Prempal's nightmare started in June 1991, when he complained to the Sangam Vihar police station that some anti-social elements were harassing a woman in his neighbourhood.

Instead of acting against the anti-socials, the police started harassing Prempal, a mason by profession, and booked him in an Arms Act case. But he was acquitted.

The second spell of misery began when Prempal reported to the cops about a theft in his house. The suspect, Niranjan, was employed under Prempal and had fled with his savings.

The police did not register his complaint, but accompanied Prempal to Aligarh from where Niranjan was apprehended.

The police also recovered some stolen property, but did not return it to Prempal, who complained to the commissioner.

This irked the cops, who started threatening him.

Prempal then moved the Delhi high court seeking transfer of the theft case to some other agency and return of stolen goods.

On July 23, 1993, when he came out of the HC, the police arrested him in another Arms Act case. While in custody, he was implicated in a murder case. Again, he was acquitted in the Arms Act case.

The cops then implicated him and his son Sanjay in 13 cases of theft and his wife in one case of theft. Prempal and Sanjay were acquitted in 9 of these cases and his wife was also set free.

Prempal and Sanjay then left for Aligarh, where they started a small business.

However, the police did not leave him and framed him in the rape case.

Get Rediff News in your Inbox:
Source: PTI© Copyright 2024 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.
 
CHINESE CHALLENGE - 2022

CHINESE CHALLENGE