Uttar Pradesh cops 'force' rape victim to withdraw complaint after making accused pay Rs 50,000: Report

In an unsettling incident, police in Uttar Pradesh forced a 16-year-old rape survivor to withdraw her complaint after the accused was told to pay her Rs 50,000.

As per a report in The Times Of India, the incident took place in Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki where Ankit Verma, a 25-year-old married man abducted the girl on August 22. He then reportedly raped her and later took her to a hotel in Ghaziabad and repeated the crime, as per the victim's complaint.

SP Dinesh Singh mentioned that the girl alleged that "Ankit’s brother also forced himself on her."

On August 25 when the girl's condition worsened, Ankit left the teenager outside her house and also threatened her.

The victim's uncle reported a complaint against Ankit and insisted on his arrest. The probe was delayed even though the victim's uncle lodged a complaint soon after, the publication reported.

The police locked up Ankit in a room for 10 hours after the complaint was filed.

However, the girl was later told to withdraw her complaint after the accused paid Rs 50,000 to her. SP Dinesh Singh told TOI that he has removed police station in-charge Arun Pratap Singh and suspended another cop, Manoj Kumar, over the incident.

The girl's uncle mentioned that her father was murdered in 2018 and soon after her mother died by suicide, following which he has been taking care of the girl and her brother, the publication reported.