Illustration used for representational purpose

PILIBHIT: “They came from nowhere, rescued my daughter and disappeared into the dark,” a woman wrote in her statement while filing an FIR against four abductors who allegedly pulled her daughter, a Class X student, into a car and tried to rape her in Pilibhit.

The two youths, in their early 20s, heard the screams of the 45-year-old woman and turned their motorcycle towards the car in which her daughter, just 15, was abducted in Pilibhit. After a chase of about 2km, the motorcycle rider overtook the car and, quiet valiantly, stopped it in front of it in the middle of the road.

“This courageous act shocked the abductors, and they fled after pushing me out of the vehicle,” a girl told her mother after the incident, adding that the youths went away after seeing that she was safe.

The incident took place on November 17 evening at Pilibhit's Naugvan crossing, and the FIR of abduction against the four men was registered on Saturday, after the woman approached senior police officers.

“I am grateful to the two youths on bike, who following my cries for help, promptly reacted and rescued my daughter by blocking the way of the running car. I wish that I could somehow know something about them, to pay my thanks,” the victim’s mother told TOI over phone from Shahjhanpur, where she lives with the family.

But, she was not as grateful to Shahjahanpur police. She alleged that the four men were harassing her daughter for over a month now and her repeated complaints to police failed to elicit any action. She claimed that the four men had kidnapped her daughter in retaliation to her complaints filed against them.

“The accused were regularly teasing and harassing my girl on her way to school,” she said.

“In spite of my complaints, police didn’t act. Had they acted on time, my daughter would not have been kidnapped,” the woman said, adding, “Even police in Pilibhit were not ready to file the abduction case. It was then that I approached superintendent of police Abhishek Dixit. He directed filing of a case against the four men.”

The four accused were booked under IPC sections 354 A (using criminal force to any woman or abetting such act with the intention of disrobing or compelling her to be naked), 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder) and sections 7, 8 of the POCSO Act in Pilibhit. No arrest has been made so far.

(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)

