The Yogi Adityanath government has decided to open 218 new fast-track courts to deal exclusively with rape cases and child sex abuse, but the Unnao family at the heart of the gang-rape-and-murder case called the move an eyewash.
The government decision, approved by the cabinet on Monday, comes after a gang-rape complainant was allegedly burnt alive by her tormentors and three others last week in the Unnao village of Hindu Nagar.
Her elder sister was sceptical of the government’s move, telling reporters the fast-track courts can act only if the police register cases.
“See, what happened with my sister. The police didn’t register an FIR when she was gang-raped by village panchayat chief Savitri Devi’s son Shubham Trivedi and nephew Shivam Trivedi last December,” she said.
“The case was registered only in March this year and Shivam alone was arrested, that too only in August. The police lied to the court, saying Shubham was in hiding although he was in the village and was regularly threatening us.”
She alleged that while Shivam was in jail custody in October, his father Ram Kishore, Shubham, and Shubham’s father Harishankar (Devi’s husband) had “burnt out crop field to terrorise us”.
“On December 2, Shubham and Harishankar arrived at our home and thrashed my father when he refused to ask my sister to withdraw the gang-rape case. We went to the police after every incident but were rebuked, ridiculed and insulted at the police stations,” she said.
The sister, who was weeping helplessly, complained of dizziness and nausea in the afternoon and was taken to a local hospital. The OBC family has been provided with security since Sunday after they said they feared harm from the village’s Brahmins, caste brethren of the accused.
State law minister Brijesh Pathak said in Lucknow that the fast-track courts were a long-pending idea.
“A total of 144 new courts will be set up to hear rape cases and 74 to deal with sexual offences against children. Some 25,749 rape cases and 42,389 child sex-abuse cases are pending with the lower courts of the state,” Pathak said.
He said each court would cost about Rs 75 lakh to set up, and that the central government would bear 60 per cent of the expenses.
Pathak said these courts would be made operational as soon as possible. “We will run them from rented premises if no government building is available immediately,” he said.
“The police have been asked to register cases as soon as a woman or her family complains of a sexual offence.”