14 cops injured while trying to prevent mob lynching of rape accused

Mumbai: At least 14 policemen were injured while trying to save a rape accused from mob lynching. The incident took place in a tribal village of Jalgaon district on Thursday night after the police arrested a man accused of rape and murder of a six-year-old girl. The accused was absconding for days after committing the heinous crime. When the villagers learnt about the arrest, they surrounded the police station and demanded that the accused should be handed over to them. Subsequently they attacked the police station in which policemen on duty were injured.

Around 10 days ago, a six-year-old girl belonging to Bhil community from Schedule Tribe (ST) was raped and murdered in a village of Jalgaon district. The accused has been identified as Subhash Bhil (35), who was the neighbour of the victim.

The police had registered an FIR against Subhash under section 376 and 302 of IPC and relevant sections of POCSO (The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act.  

According to the officials, the accused was arrested from Bhusawal on Thursday afternoon. The news of arrest of Subhash spread in villages around Jamner, and a mob began to gather outside the Jamner Police Station from Thursday evening. The accused had been sent in police custody and kept at Jalgaon district headquarter. The crowd had swelled to over 700-800 persons.

“When police inspector Kiran Shinde of Jamner Police Station came back to the Police Station from Jalgaon, the mob demanded that the accused be handed over to them. When the mob felt that the accused had not been brought back to Jamner, they became agitated and started pelting stones on the cops,” the officials said.

The officials said that the accused was caught on CCTV camera of the Gram Panchayat Office, while he was taking the victim to a temple hall and then to a field after giving her a puffed rice cone worth Rs 5 on for “pressing his legs”. The accused accused had escaped into the field and forest areas after raping and murdering the child.  

A senior official, who is familiar with the entire incident, said that the child had a head injury. “It appears that Subhash had murdered the child with a stone, the Bhil community wanted to kill the accused by hitting the bricks and stone. Therefore, they wanted the police to hand over the accused,” he said.    

According to the sources, six companies of SRPF (State Reserve Police Force) including two from Dhule district were deployed to disperse the mob by tear gas.     

Maheshwar Reddy, Superintendent of Police (SP) of Jalgaon District, told this newspaper that 14 police personnel were injured in the stone pelting at Jammer. Of these, six police personnel have been hospitalised. “None of them are serious,” he said.

Mr. Reddy said that they have arrested 15 people in connection with the rioting and stone pelting on the police. “We have booked them under sections 307, 353 and 332 of the IPC. All of them are produced before the Court, which sent them to Police custody for five days,” he said.

According to the SP, 500 to 700 people were mobilized and demanded to hand over the accused to them.