Beed rape survivor’s spouse, kin & parents-in-law booked

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: The police on Monday registered an offence under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006, against the husband, parents and parents-in-law of the survivor of the March 10 Beed rape case.Madhusudan Ghuge, in-charge of Pimplaner police station, said acting on the instructions of the District Women and Child Development Committee, the local gram sevak has registered an FIR against all accused."The 17-year-old survivor was married around a year ago despite being a minor. We will carry out an inquiry involving all the accused and further action will be taken as per the law," he said.Earlier, NCP leader and president of Maharashtra State Commission for Women Rupali Chakankar had said that instructions have been issued to register offences not only against those directly involved in the child marriage concerned, but also against those who arranged the marriage and those present at the wedding.The Pimpalner police on March 13 arrested the survivor's former boyfriend (29) based on her statement to the police that he raped and tied her to a pole. Police have invoked section 4 (penetrative sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act and sections 137 (2) (Kidnapping), 333 (trespassing) and 64 (2) (i) (rape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) in the case.Police said they were struggling to gather technical evidence in the alleged abduction and the rape of the minor married girl. Assistant police inspector Atulkumar Landge said the entire village does not have a single CCTV camera."The place where the alleged rape took place is nearly 1.5-km from the survivor's home. We have recorded the accounts of a few locals who only saw that the girl was tied to the rope, but no evidence or witness is available to establish the earlier chain of events," he said.Moreover, the police said neither the survivor girl nor any family members from her maternal side use a mobile phone. "We have sought thecall records of the suspect and parents-in-law as part of the investigation. Also, medical reports of both the suspect and the survivor were still awaited,"Landge said.