The Station Officer and two constables of Bichhwan Police Station in Mainpuri district have been suspended. (File) The Station Officer and two constables of Bichhwan Police Station in Mainpuri district have been suspended. (File)

A 41-year-old Dalit man has accused police of torturing him when he went to file a complaint about the kidnapping of his 38-year-old wife by three unidentified youths from the Aligarh-Kanpur highway in Mainpuri area, on Friday night. After the woman alleged gangrape, police Saturday registered a case against three unidentified youths.

The Station Officer and two constables of Bichhwan Police Station in Mainpuri district have been suspended.

Police said the couple, natives of Bulandshahr district, were going to his relatives’ house on a motorcycle on Friday night when the woman was allegedly abducted by three men in a car. The husband approached police for help, but the officials who responded accused him of “foul play” instead.

Superintendent of Police, Mainpuri, Ajai Shankar Rai said, “Policemen assaulted him during questioning. A medical examination shows injuries on his back and legs.”

Meanwhile, around five hours later, the woman made her way to the police station, and said the abductors had raped her and taken away her jewellery before dumping her in neighbouring Etah district.

On Saturday, based on the husband’s complaint, an FIR was lodged against three unidentified men on charges of gangrape, kidnapping and robbery at Kurawali Police Station in Mainpuri. On Sunday, Bichhwan Police Station SO Rajneesh Pal Singh and two constables were suspended for allegedly harassing him.

However, SP Rai said, a medical examination of the woman did not hold up the charge of sexual assault. “The medical report has arrived and it does not support the rape allegation. No injuries have been found on her body.”

While the husband works in a cloth factory, the wife is employed in a medical firm. They got married around 12 years ago.

Station House officer, Kurawali Police Station, Shiv Singh Chauhan said the man had said that on Friday night, as he and his wife were on the highway, three youths came from behind them in a car, blocked their way, abducted her and fled after smashing the motorcycle.

“The man dragged his motorcycle for around 4 km and reached Bichhwan area of Mainpuri district. With the help of a passerby, he called the police control room and informed them about the incident,” Chauhan said.

A police team led by SO Singh rushed to the spot and the man told them his wife had been kidnapped. The man claims that police started questioning him instead about her, and then took him to Bichhwan Police Station and continued the interrogation at length. Eventually, they sent him to Kurawali Police Station saying the place where the alleged incident took place fell under its jurisdiction.

At Kurawali Police Station, the man called up his family in Bulandshahr district tell them what had happened. Around two hours later, the wife reached the police station on her own, said SHO Chauhan. “She told police the accused had raped her inside the car and dumped her at the Etah district border. She said she had walked for around half-an-hour and reached a bus stand and taken a bus for Mainpuri. She said she called her family from the cellphone of a passenger. And that after her family said that her husband was at Kurawali Police Station, she had come there,” said the SHO, adding that the place where the woman was dumped was around 45 km away.

He added that investigation was on and the allegation of kidnapping appeared to be true.

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