Madhya Pradesh: Child welfare committee member accused of raping Dalit widow, case registered
Mar 23, 2023, 3:08 p.m.
Bhopal. Criminal cases against women are continuously coming up in Madhya Pradesh. According to the statistics of the year 2021 of the National Crime Records Bureau, atrocities on women had increased significantly in MP. The latest case of rape of a Dalit woman by a member of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) has come to the fore in Chhatarpur district of the state. The police have arrested the accused by registering a case under the SC-ST Act including rape in the matter.
What is the whole matter?
The incident of rape of a widowed Dalit woman living in Chhattarpur’s Orchha Road police station area came to light. According to several complaints lodged by the woman with the police, Saurabh Bhatnagar, a member of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), used to frequently visit the widow’s house on the pretext of searching for her cousin’s sister. The CWC member meanwhile raped the woman. According to the complaint, the woman was alone in the house with the innocent child. The victim narrated her ordeal to the family and with the help of the family, the woman reached the police station, where on her complaint, the accused was arrested after registering a case against the CWC member for rape and under the SC-ST Act.
CSP Lokendra Singh said that a widow living in the Orchha Road police station area has lodged a complaint in the women’s police station that Saurabh Bhatnagar, a member of the Child Welfare Committee, raped her. On the complaint of the victim, a case has been registered against the accused CWC member Saurabh Bhatnagar under sections 376, 450, 506 and SC-ST Act of IPC, and the accused has also been arrested.
The victim told the police
The victim narrated the incident that happened to her. A widow living in a room near Orchha Road police station in the city told the police that her husband had died in 2017. Due to which she lived with her mother. The woman runs a small shop [gumti] for the upbringing of the son and her household was running with the little savings she got from this. The victim told that recently her cousin had eloped. Due to the eloping of her cousin, a resident of Maharajpur police station area, she went to the CUC center with her mother to complain. During this, he met CWC member Saurabh Bhatnagar. Saurabh assured help in finding out the cousin’s sister, since then he started coming to the woman’s gumti.
According to the victim, at around 8.30 pm on March 11, when she was running a shop in her gumti, Saurabh Bhatnagar came by car and after taking cigarettes from the shop, asked for water to drink. As soon as the woman gave water, the accused Saurabh gave her Caught and raped her. Sauraf Bhatnagar also threatened the woman while leaving, and threatened to kill her if she told anyone about it.
MP is in third place in the case of rape.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report for the year 2021, 3,04,066 cases were registered in Madhya Pradesh. Of these, 10 percent i.e. 30,673 crimes have been committed against women only. In the year 2020, 2,83,881 cases were registered here. In this context, in the year 2021, there was an increase of 5036 cases in crime against women. Madhya Pradesh is at number three in the case of murder after rape and gangrape. In one year, 35 such cases were registered in the state, in which the victim was raped and murdered. UP ranks first with 48 cases. 46 such cases were reported in Assam.
Incidents are also increasing with children
According to the report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), in 2021, maximum crimes against children have been registered in the state. In 2021, 19,173 cases of crime against children have been registered, which is the highest in the country. According to NCRB data of previous years Madhya Pradesh has registered a steady increase in crimes against children year after year. There has been a 337% increase in crimes against children from 2011 to 2021. The total number of cases in Madhya Pradesh was 4,383 in 2011, which has increased to 19,173 in 2021.
