Bhopal:

The house of the man accused of raping a teenage girl in Madhya Pradesh’s Ujjain will be demolished tomorrow, as it was allegedly built illegally.

Videos of a 15-year-old girl, semi-naked and bleeding, going door-to-door for help, sparked outrage across the country last week. 

The accused, Bharat Soni, an auto-rickshaw driver, was arrested in the case on Thursday. Bharat is currently in jail awaiting trial. His family has been living in the house on government land for years, the Ujjain Municipal Corporation said.

Municipal Commissioner Roshan Singh said that the land belongs to the government and therefore no notice is needed for its demolition. The municipal body will take action tomorrow in collaboration with the Madhya Pradesh police. Bharat was caught after a long investigation that involved reviewing footage from nearly 700 CCTV cameras.

“30-35 people were involved in the investigation. No one slept for three or four days,” Ajay Verma, a senior police officer, told NDTV.

‘Shockwaves’

On September 26, videos went viral on social media showing a minor girl, haggard, bleeding, and begging for help. A CCTV camera on Badnagar Road, about 15 km from Ujjain, captured the girl, draped in rags, going door-to-door, seeking assistance. The chilling footage, that sent shockwaves across the country, showed people shooing the girl away, as she approached them one after the other. 

READ |In Ujjain Rape Case, Those Who Didn’t Help Teen May Face Charges: Police

The minor girl, exhausted and traumatised with her body barely covered by a tattered cloth, aimlessly wandered the streets. Word of her agony reached an ashram not far from her location. A priest there, sensing that she had been sexually assaulted, draped her in a towel and rushed her to the nearby hospital. The medical examination confirmed her fears: she had been raped.

The girl’s injuries were severe, so she was rushed to Indore for specialised medical care. Police officers volunteered to donate blood when she needed it.

The accused, Bharat, was arrested three days later. The accused attempted to flee while reenacting the crime scene to collect evidence, including torn clothing but was swiftly caught. 

“We reached the spot to recover the clothes worn by the girl. Sensing an opportunity, Bharat Soni tried to escape. Police personnel chased and caught him. During this, he fell on a cemented road, injuring his arms and legs,” the police said.

‘Should Be Hanged’

Bharat’s father has called for the death penalty for his son, while the local bar association has urged its members to refuse to represent him in court.

“It is a shameful act. Neither have I gone to hospital to meet him, no will I go to the police station or courts. My son has committed a crime, therefore he should be hanged,” his father said.

Repercussions

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who is gearing up for assembly elections in the state scheduled in November this year, vowed to prosecute the accused to the fullest extent of the law.

“The victim is the daughter of Madhya Pradesh. We will take care of her in every way. She is my daughter, as well as the state’s daughter and we will ensure that the accused gets stringent punishment,” he declared.

READ | “She Could’ve Been My Child”: Ujjain Rape Accused’s Father Seeks Death Penalty

The horrific incident has provided additional fodder to opposition parties to question the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led state government which is under pressure for its dismal record on violence against women.

According to National Crime Records Bureau data, Madhya Pradesh, with 6,462 cases, reported the most number of rape incidents in the country in 2021. Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra have reported the highest number of cases of disappearance of women and girls between 2019 and 2021. Of all the reported rape cases, 50 per cent were crimes against minors, NCRB data states. 

Ujjain:

The father of the man arrested for allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl in Ujjain on Friday demanded capital punishment for his son, while the local bar association appealed that no lawyer should defend him in the court.

The opposition Congress, meanwhile, continued to target the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh over the incident and questioned the “silence” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Bharat Soni, an auto rickshaw driver, was arrested in the case on Thursday.

“It is a shameful act. Neither have I gone to hospital to meet him, no will I go to the police station or courts. My son has committed a crime, therefore he should be hanged,” his father told reporters here.

Ujjain Bar Council president Ashok Yadav said the incident had damaged the reputation of the temple city.

“We are appealing to our members not to take up the case of the accused,” he said.

Bharat Soni was arrested three days after a girl, aged about 12, was found walking on the city streets in injured condition.

Medical examination established that she had been raped.

Soni sustained injury when he allegedly tried to escape while being taken to the crime spot for investigation, police had said on Thursday. The girl is admitted to the Government Maharaja Tukojirao Holkar Women’s Hospital in Indore where she underwent a major surgery on Wednesday.

A counsellor interacted with her and found that she belongs to the Satna district of MP. But she could not tell her name or address properly.

Police had said that a complaint about a girl of the same age going missing had been registered in Satna, but it was to be confirmed if the rape survivor was the same girl.

The Congress slammed the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh where assembly elections are due by the year-end.

Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate alleged that the law-and-order situation in the state had considerably deteriorated under Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

“In Madhya Pradesh, being a Dalit, tribal and woman has become a sin. Madhya Pradesh is number one in rapes of minors. Fifty-eight thousand rape cases and 68,000 kidnapping cases have been reported in 18 years of his (Chouhan’s) rule. But the country’s prime minister, home minister and all the BJP leaders are just sitting silent,” Shrinate told reporters in Delhi.

She also questioned the “silence” of Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani, the National Commission for Women (NCW) and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) over the incident.

Randeep Singh Surjewala, the Congress general secretary in charge of Madhya Pradesh, claimed that the attack on this “Dalit girl” was more brutal than that on the Nirbhaya case victim.

Surjewala also visited the Holkar Women’s Hospital in Indore.

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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)