Ram Temple Dalit worker in Ayodhya alleges gangrape!

NT Correspondent Ayodhya: A 20-year-old sanitation worker at the Ram Janmabhoomi temple here has accused nine men of gang rape, leading to the arrest of five suspects so far. The horrific incidents are said to have occurred on three different occasions between August 16 and 25, according to media reports. Ayodhya police, facing widespread criticism on social media after the girl’s allegations were widely shared, has dismissed the allegations and said that the girl’s statement was registered before a judicial magistrate. In her statement to the media, the girl said that eight persons were involved in the crime.

On the basis of the girl’s statements to the media, it is alleged that she was gangraped multiple times from August 16-25 by a boy she had been in a relationship with and other men known to him. The girl alleged that the men also made videos of the sexual assault and blackmailed her saying if she went to the police, they would harm her family. “On August 28, when I was going to the women police station to register my complaint they called me and threatened me that if I complained they would do the same to my sisters and that it won’t be good for my family,” she said.

The girl, a college student, also works as a sanitation worker in the Ram Janmabhoomi complex. She alleged that her romantic partner invited her to a guest house where four of his friends were already waiting. The two had been in a relationship for a year, she said. She alleged that she tried to escape from the room but they overpowered her.

Due to an impact on her head, she lost consciousness, she said. Further, the girl alleged that she was then raped by the accused persons. When she woke up, she found only two of the men in the room. Afterwards, she alleged, they took her to a garage and raped her again. Since they had made videos of her, they used it as a blackmailing tool to summon her on other occasions, she mentioned. “Due to fear, I didn’t tell the police or my family.”

The girl also claimed that when she went to the police, they initially refused to register her complaint and even raised doubts over her allegations. “They said my allegations were fake and that they would first probe the case and then take action,” she said. An FIR was registered in the case finally on September 2 at the Cantonment police station.

The girl said that even after waiting for 36 hours she was not given a copy of the FIR. Posting a clip of her narrating her ordeal on a television channel, SP president Akhilesh Yadav said that the case had revealed the “main reason” behind the “increasing torture and atrocities” against women in Uttar Pradesh. “How a victim has to go through so much torture to get an FIR registered due to some insensitive police personnel,” Yadav said on X.