Jamshedpur: POCSO court orders trial against 22 persons in Sahara City’s minor rape case

Jamshedpur, July 9: In a recent development in the Sahara City’s minor rape case, Special POCSO court of additional district judge – V, Subhash has passed an order to include 22 more persons in the case and start trial against them.

Former deputy superintendent of police, Ajay Karketta, former MGM police station  OC, Imdad Ansari and a woman have been made accused in the sensational case include

In the case registered with the Mango police station  in January 2018, three persons namely Inderpal Singh Saini, Shib Kumar Mahto and Shrikant Mahto, had been initially accused, thus making the total number of accused now 25.

The court has ordered for inclusion of 22 more accused under CrPC Section 319 after the victim’s mother had filed a petition against them with the Special POCSO court in March this year.

“After the petition was filed in the Special POCSO court, the court recorded the statement of the victim. As names and addresses of all the 22 accused were not in the petition, the court had instructed them to furnish them. The petitioner had furnished the names and address of the accused on July 3,” said advocate Mamta Singh, on behalf of the victim.

Earlier, the police had carried out an investigation against these 22 persons, but had given them clean chit in 2019, leading the victim’s mother to approach former chief minister Raghubar Das for justice. Das had ordered for a CID probe. The CID had also carried out a probe, but in September last given a clean chit to these 22 persons.

The victim who works as a domestic help at the house of a businessman Nanak Chand Seth was allegedly raped by Shib Kumar Mahto in 2016. An electrician, Shib Kumar had raped the victim while visiting Seth’s house in Sahara City in absence of Seth and his family members.

Shib Kumar had also made a video clipping of the incident and later passed it to his friends, Saini and Shrikant who too had exploited minor later on.

In 2017, Saini had taken the victim to Dimna forest under MGM police station  area where he was caught by the police along with the girl. The victim was brought to the MGM police station  where two police officers, including a DSP, had raped the girl.