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CHANDIGARH: A 14-year-old rape survivor from Haryana has petitioned the Punjab and Haryana high court , alleging that male police officers in Kaithal sexually harassed her by forcing her to strip as part of investigation. She has alleged that the cops asked her to unbutton her clothes so that they could examine whether she was raped. A cop also touched her thighs, she added.

Acting on her petition, Justice Rekha Mittal on Monday issued a notice to the Haryana DGP, seeking a reply from him before the next hearing, July 5. The girl had filed the rape case on November 20 alleging that she knew the accused. Subsequently, her statement was recorded before the first class judicial magistrate in Kaithal. Besides recounting the rape, she also talked about her ordeal at the hands of the cops. Yet, no FIR was filed against the policemen.

According to her petition in the HC, which she had filed with her father’s help, the cops had taken her along with the accused to the crime investigation agency (CIA) office in Kaithal on the night of November 23. She said in her petition that what the policemen did to her was more humiliating than the rape.

“One CIA policeman asked me to show him (how she was raped) by opening the buttons of my shirt and then put his hand on my thighs,” the girl said in the petition. “One policeman held on to my toes. Another told me not to disclose anything to anyone or the medical examination would not be done. Then they took me to the woman police station,” the petition said. The survivor said she wanted an FIR registered against the cops under various sections of the IPC and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

The girl’s lawyer argued before the court that the family had made representations to the DGP and other authorities about the sexual harassment but the FIR was not registered against the cops.

