UP govt to submit status report in Bulandshahr gang-rape case today

Allahabad: The Uttar Pradesh government will on Thursday produce a status report on the investigation in the Bulandshahr gang-rape case after it failed to submit the report before the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice DB Bhosale and Justice Yashwant Varma, which has taken suo motu cognizance of the sexual assault on a minor girl and her mother, had on August 08 directed that the status report be submitted on August 10.

However, when Advocate General Vijay Bahadur Singh made a request for more time to submit the status report, the court ordered that the same be produced "tomorrow, by 2 pm in a sealed cover".

The court has taken a grim view of the incident that took place on July 29, when a car carrying six members of a Noida family to Shahjahanpur in western UP was stopped by criminals on a highway in Bulandhshahr district and the 13-year-old girl and her mother were gang-raped in the fields nearby after being dragged out of the vehicle.

The incident evoked a huge outcry and the Samajwadi Party government in the state drew widespread criticism over the law and order situation in UP.

Besides seeking a status report, the court has sought to know from the state government whether it was "willing to hand over investigation of the case to the CBI" and "what steps the state would like to take to avoid such incidents in future".

(With PTI inputs)