Minor’s rape: More criticism against sudden transfer of Madanrting OC
SHILLONG: The chairperson of the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Meena Kharkongor, has filed another FIR, this time at Laban police station, naming three more persons who had sexually exploited the 14-year-old girl.The girl called the three persons as ‘Mama’ (uncle), who sexually abused her at the Rilbong guest house.A case was registered on Wednesday following the filing of the FIR.
Earlier, Kharkongor had filed a series of FIRs with Madanrting police station.Among the two FIRs related to Julius Dorphang, one was transferred to Laitumkhrah police station and another to Ri Bhoi police.
The FIRs field by Kharkongor had resulted in the arrests of as many as 12 persons till date.Meanwhile, further criticism has come to the fore from several quarters against the sudden transfer of Officer in Charge of Madanrting police station, Inspector B.K Mishra. Sources said Mishra was directly or indirectly instrumental in the arrest of as many as six accused in the sex-racket case, including Mamoni Parveen, Usha Deb Barman, Tarisha Mary Kharbamon, Madan Bahadur Thapa, Nirdesh Jain and Wanlambok Khongsit alias Jhandu. Mishra was also involved in the recent arrest of Hussain Ali, a teer counter agent.
According to sources, there is more to it than meets the eye as far as the sudden transfer of Mishra is concerned.The case was in fact first reported at Laban police station and after the girl was medically examined by the personnel of Laban police station, the accused, Usha Deb Barman, was arrested and the room where the girl was sexually abused was sealed by them.Within an hour, the case was handed over to Madanrting police station stating that the place of occurrence is under its jurisdiction. Following this, the case was investigated by Mishra and one of the accused, Madan Thapa, who was a client at Marvelene’s Inn, Rilbong, surrendered before him. Curiously within a week, the case was transferred to a different investigating officer under Women’s police station without revealing any reason, which indicates that the police department might have been under pressure from someone. However, the case of Julius Dorphang was not handed over to any woman police officer. Some citizens have questioned whether the transfer of Mishra was to weaken the case at the command of some higher-ups to help someone. According to them, there was no urgency to transfer him and the transfer, if at all needed, should have been carried out after filing the charge sheet since he was following up the matter after as many as six cases were registered at Madanrting police station.They pointed out that the officer had in the past solved many complicated cases and arrested several accused from many parts of the country, including the traffickers involved in Rynjah case from Delhi.Multiple inquiries A legal expert said since there are multiple cases registered under various police stations in the sex-racket case, it would have been ideal to combine these cases into one for effective monitoring and early charge sheets.
He also cited the provisions of clause D of Section 178 of the CrPC which states that “where it consists of several acts done in different local areas, it may be inquired into or tried by a Court having jurisdiction over any of such local areas”.