Lucknow: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) are at loggerheads over the gangrape of a 12-year-old girl in Bhadarsa in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya. With assembly byelections due in 10 seats in the state, including Milkipur, which falls under Ayodhya district, the gangrape has become a political flashpoint as party leaders queue up outside the survivor’s house in Bikapur — next to Milkipur — to meet her family. 

The Ayodhya police collected DNA samples of the two accused — SP functionary Moid Khan (62) and his associate Raju Khan (20) — from the Faizabad district jail Tuesday, and the sample of the foetus Wednesday after the minor underwent a medical termination of pregnancy procedure at a Lucknow hospital, officers confirmed.

Ayodhya Child Welfare Committee Chairperson Sarvesh Awasthi told ThePrint that the DNA samples of the two accused were collected by the police after the Ayodhya district court’s nod.

“The sampling has been done. The girl was shifted from King George’s Medical University to the district women’s hospital Friday since she is weak. She needs to be kept under observation,” he said.

Ayodhya’s chief medical officer, Dr Sanjay Jain, said, “We had received directions to form a medical team and take samples of the accused for the DNA test. The same was done Tuesday.”

The demand for a DNA test of the accused was raised by several SP leaders last week, including party chief Akhilesh Yadav, while former SP MLA Tejnarayan Pandey had demanded a narco analysis of the accused and the minor’s mother as well. 

The demand had come a day after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath launched a scathing attack on the SP in the Uttar Pradesh assembly, saying that one of the accused in the case, bakery owner Moid Khan (62), was an SP member and “sat, ate and walked with” the newly elected Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad, and that the party had not yet taken any action against him.

SP general secretary Shivpal Yadav also demanded a narco analysis of the victim and the accused, and even the BJP leaders, who he said were politicising the issue. 

The dates for bypolls in the 10 assembly seats — Karhal, Milkipur, Katehari, Majhawan, Kundarki, Khair, Ghaziabad, Meerapur and Sisamau — are yet to be announced.

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The case

Moid and Raju were booked at Ayodhya’s Purakalandar police station on 29 July for the alleged gangrape of a 12-year-old. The minor’s mother had alleged that about two and half months ago, her daughter was working in a field near her house, which is about 500 metres away from Moid’s bakery — which has now been bulldozed by the district authorities — when Raju took her to the bakery under the pretense that Moid was calling her there for work. 

According to the FIR lodged by the survivor’s mother, a copy of which has been accessed by ThePrint, the minor was first raped by Moid, who was already present at the bakery, as Raju filmed the act. Later, Raju allegedly raped her and threatened her not to reveal the incident to anyone.

“Raju threatened her saying that he would kill her if she revealed the incident to anyone and that they would circulate the video. He continued to blackmail her with the video of the act, which had resulted in her pregnancy. Fearing humiliation, she did not reveal anything about the incident to anyone, but when she fell sick, we (the family) took her to a doctor, and found that our daughter was two-months pregnant,” read the FIR.

The survivor’s uncle told ThePrint that their house is about 500 metres away from Moid’s residence and that her mother works as a househelp in the neighbourhood. 

“The girl and her twin sister are the youngest among the four kids of my brother and his wife. She has only studied till fifth standard. Her father had died of illness about two years ago and since then, my sister-in-law earns meagre wages and is raising her children with the same,” he said.

Attempts to ‘broker a compromise’ & BJP’s ‘conspiracy’

Santosh Dubey, Shiv Sena’s head for eastern Uttar Pradesh and president of the Hindu Dharma Sena, who met the family soon after the FIR was lodged on 29 July, told ThePrint that the Station House Officer (SHO) of Purakalandar, Ratan Sharma, and Chowki Incharge Akhilesh Gupta of the Bhadarsa police post, who were suspended by the UP police on 2 August, had attempted to “broker a compromise between the accused and the victim’s family”.

“We found out that when the victim’s mother approached the police on 28 July, the SHO and the chowki incharge had pressured the victim’s family telling them a large sum of money could be paid to them by the accused. Senior police officers were informed about it after which an FIR was lodged. Precious time was lost in taking the girl to a hospital because of this,” he said, adding that the police chowki is set up on Moid’s land. 

However, the family of the accused Moid is making different claims about the incident.

Speaking to ThePrint, Moid’s cousin Aftab Khan claimed that the elder sister of the minor was in a romantic relationship with an employee at Moid’s bakery, while the 12-year-old herself was involved with Raju.

“Whatever is being said about my cousin is false. The girl knew Raju and had never visited the bakery. Had we known about Raju, we would have had him fired from the bakery,” he said, adding that they too are demanding a DNA test and narco analysis of the accused and the girl’s mother to “establish the truth”. 

Aftab alleged that the FIR against Moid was the result of BJP’s conspiracy.

“They had lost the Bhadarsa Nagar Panchayat election and then Ayodhya Lok Sabha seat. My cousin has been framed because of BJP’s politics. They have concocted the case against him over their disgruntlement,” he claimed.     

The girl’s uncle has accused Mohammed Rashid, chairman of Bhadarsa Nagar Panchayat, and Jai Singh Rana, who are affiliated with the SP, of threatening the survivor’s family to arrive at a “compromise” with the accused.

Speaking to ThePrint, the girl’s uncle said that around 11 pm on 1 August, Rashid and Rana had arrived at the hospital, where the girl was admitted. 

“They arrived and pressured the victim’s mother and family members to compromise and offered money for the same,” he alleged.

An FIR has been lodged in connection with the same against Rashid and Rana in Ayodhya’s Kotwali police station under sections 333 (house-trespass, having made preparation for causing hurt to any person or for assaulting any person) and 351 (3) (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). The complainant is Baba Ramsewak Das, a BJP leader and self-styled seer, who had fought the Nagar Panchayat chairman election against Rashid in 2021. 

‘DNA test the natural way of investigation’

After the Faizabad MP’s pictures with Moid emerged on social media, BJP launched an attack on him.

Hours after the chief minister raised the issue in the Uttar Pradesh assembly, Moid’s bakery was demolished on 3 August by two bulldozers on the instruction of the Ayodhya administration, which said that the bakery was set up after encroaching upon a pond.

His cousin, Aftab, however refuted the claim and said that the land was disputed with an ongoing legal case in the Allahabad High Court. 

Meanwhile, Additional Superintendent of Police, Ayodhya (City), Madhuvan Kumar Singh, said that DNA sampling is a natural course of action for investigation in such cases as it is critical to establish the identity of the perpetrator.

While the BJP has condemned SP leaders’ demand for a DNA test, SS Upadhayay, former district and sessions judge and an expert on the evidentiary value of DNA and narco analysis, told ThePrint that it was the duty of the investigating officer to take the DNA samples of the accused and foetus in such cases because the DNA is the most reliable evidentiary substance for identification of the accused in rape and sexual assault cases.

“In cases of gangrape, where more than two perpetrators are involved, it becomes difficult to accurately match the DNA sample from the foetus or other elements like hair, semen, etc. recovered by police from the spot of the incident as mixing of the DNA of multiple accused can lead to contamination,” he said. “This is the most common defence used by the accused in a rape and sexual assault case, which is why DNA sampling should be done within time and the report should ideally come within 15-20 days.”

(Edited by Mannat Chugh)

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