Lalitpur rape case: SHO, who allegedly raped 13-year-old rape survivor, arrested in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj

New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh Police arrested Station House Officer (SHO) Tilakdhari Saroj, who is accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old gang rape victim in Lalitpur district, on Wednesday (May 4, 2022). 

Prayagraj Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Prem Prakash said SHO Tilakdhari Saroj was arrested from near the Allahabad High Court.

The 13-year-old girl, allegedly raped by four men over three days, was sexually assaulted again by the SHO of the police station where she had went to file a complaint along with a relative.

ADGP Prakash said on a tip-off from his Kanpur counterpart, a police team was pressed into the service and searched for him on the basis of his mobile phone location.

The official informed that the SHO was changing his mobile phone at the time of the arrest. At first, the police was able to trace his location to Banda, then Chitrakoot and finally in Prayagraj.

After questioning a man close to him, the SHO was arrested from near the High Court there, he said.

ADGP Prem Prakash said it appears that he was looking for some legal assistance. The accused cop was handed over to the police team, which will bring him to Lalitpur.

Soon after the arrest, the SHO was heard saying on TV channels that he was innocent and sought an impartial inquiry into the incident.

The officials informed that the police have arrested six people in the case till now. The incident came to light after the victim narrated her ordeal to an NGO, which approached the superintendent of police. Following his intervention, an FIR was registered on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra slammed the UP government and said, "The gang-rape of a 13-year-old girl in Lalitpur and then her rape by the police in-charge when she went to file a complaint shows how genuine law and order reforms are being suppressed in the noise of "bulldozers". If police stations are not safe for women, then where will they go to take complaints?" she said in a tweet.

(With agency inputs)