Rape victim suffers more due to police act
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, June 29 2011:
A rape victim whose preperator Chanchui Luithui was lynched by a mob near the Ukhrul Central Jail on June 24 is suffering from indecent acts of police, alleged Wungmakhok V Zimik, Co-ordinator, Ukhrul District Alliance for Child Rights in a press meet held today at Hotel Imphal.
The victim a 12 year old girl is suffering from trauma of the violence and after witnessing the mob lynch the accused in front of her eyes was taken to a hospital around 11 pm on June 24 by police personnel in full uniform and arms which violates the Juvenile Justice Act.
They also kept her in police custody after she was discharged from the hospital and dropped her home at around 2.30 am.
She was called up at the police station in the morning next day and was confined from 7.30 am till 2.30 pm.
Later she was taken to RIMS hospitals along with the dead body of the accused for further tests.
Instead of handing her to a doctor, the police kept her with them during the whole process of depositing the dead body in the RIMS mortuary and conducting of post mortem giving the girl a live view of the whole process.
After completing the post mortem, they made the girl spend the night in a hotel at North AOC called Ching Tam Hotel and made her family pay the hotel rent.
Condemning the police act, Wungnaokhok said that the actions of the police to the child victim added to the trauma of the girl.
Convener Manipur Alliance for Child Rights Keisham Pradipkumar who attended the press meet told reporters that volunteers of the alliance along with volunteers of Child Welfare Committee waited for the girl at RIMS Gyanaecology Ward on the day.
He said that no policeman can interrogate a child in any police station under the Juvenile Justice Act.
Instead interrogation should be done in the victim's home by a women officer not in uniform and without any arms in the presence of a psychiatrist.
If a child is a rape victim, all required tests should be conducted within 12 hours of the incident.
He also said that the act of the police making her stay a night in a hotel instead of handing her over to a child welfare committee is a serious matter.
He said that it seems that they did not want to help the victim.