Woman raped on agri university campus in Jabalpur; two held
Jabalpur (PTI): A 22-year-old woman was allegedly raped by a clerk of a state government-run university on the campus on the pretext of providing her a job at the facility in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur city, police said on Saturday.
The police on Thursday arrested Durga Shankar Singerha (58), an upper division clerk (UDC), and Mukesh Sen, a peon, in connection with the assault that took place on the campus of the Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University.
The survivor, a resident of the Tilwara area, came across information on social media about contractual vacancies at the university around 20 days ago, Additional Superintendent of Police Jitendra Kumar told reporters.
He said that while searching for contact details, the woman found a telephone number for the vice-chancellor's office, and Singerha received her call, allegedly informed her about the vacancies and asked her to come to the university with documents.
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She reached the university with documents the very next day and met Singerha, who assured her that he could get her a job after speaking to the vice-chancellor and asked her to stay in touch, the officer said.
According to the police, Singerha continued to meet the woman several times in the city, kept assuring her that the recruitment process was underway and that an interview would be held soon.
The accused allegedly called her to the university on Thursday afternoon, claiming that an interview would be scheduled shortly, they said.
He asked the survivor to come to Sen's house situated on the university campus, and after a chat, the accused peon left the room, bolting the door from outside.
"The woman, in her complaint, alleged that Singerha raped her despite her protests," the official said.
Following the assault, the accused duo dropped her outside the university campus and threatened her with defamation if she spoke about the incident, and said she would get a job if she kept mum, police said.
The woman later informed her family and lodged a complaint at Adhartal police station, following which both accused were arrested from their homes within hours, the ASP said.
The duo was produced before a court on Friday and were remanded in judicial custody, he added.
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EC hands over probe into gherao of seven judicial officers in Bengal's Malda to NIA
Kolkata (PTI): The Election Commission of India on Thursday handed over the probe into the gherao of the seven judicial officers in West Bengal's Malda district to the NIA, following a Supreme Court directive.
Observing that West Bengal was the "most polarised state", the Supreme Court delivered a stinging indictment of the state administration after seven judicial officers engaged in SIR exercise were held hostage by protesters in Malda district and directed a CBI or NIA probe into the incident.
In an April 2 letter to the National Investigating Agency, the poll body referred to the apex court's order and directed it to probe the Wednesday incident.
Talking to PTI, a top official of the poll body said the NIA team would reach West Bengal on Friday.
Slamming the state administration for its "complete failure" and inaction over the "deplorable" gherao and attack on the officers during the Special Intensive Revision(SIR) of the voters list, the court also asked the EC to "requisition adequate Central Forces and deploy them at all places where judicial officers are adjudicating the objections".
West Bengal will have a two-phase poll -- on April 23 and 29.
The Supreme Court further said the incident was a "brazen attempt not only to browbeat the judicial officers" but also amounted to a challenge to the authority of this Supreme Court.
The top court gave the order after it took suo motu cognisance of a letter from the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court detailing a harrowing night where the judicial officers, including three women and a five-year-old child, were held captive by a mob for over nine hours without food or water.
The incident occurred during the SIR exercise in the Kaliachowk area of Malda district, and as per the order, seven judicial officers were gheraoed by "anti-social elements" at a BDO office starting at 3:30 PM on Wednesday.
The officers were rescued by security forces around midnight on Wednesday after they were gheraoed over the alleged deletion of names from the electoral rolls, officials said.
