A magistrate in Rajasthan’s Karauli district has been booked for allegedly asking a Dalit gang rape survivor to strip and show her injuries, according to authorities.
Deputy SP (ST-SC) cell, Mina Meena, stated that the survivor filed a complaint on March 30, alleging that the Hindaun court magistrate asked her to remove her clothes under the pretext of examining her injuries.
“She refused to strip, and after recording the statement in the court on March 30, she registered a complaint against the magistrate. The case was registered with Kotwali Police Station under charges of outraging modesty,” Meena said.
The magistrate has been booked under section 345 (wrongful confinement) of the IPC and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. However, the accused has not been named in the FIR.
The police noted that the 18-year-old girl was gang-raped on March 19, with a case registered at Hindaun Sadar Police Station on March 27.
According to a TOI report, the magistrate asked the girl to strip even after she underwent a medical examination conducted by the police. The survivor appeared before the court to record her statement on March 30.
In the FIR dated March 30, the complainant stated, “After recording my statement, the magistrate asked me to take off my clothes. He said, ‘I want to see the injury marks on your body.’ I replied, ‘You are a man. I would have shown if there was a female magistrate instead.’ Despite this, the magistrate said, ‘I want to see the injury marks on your body’.”
This incident comes after a 25-year-old rape survivor sustained serious injuries in February this year when she was shot at and attacked with a sharp-edged weapon by a man accused of raping her and his accomplices in the Kotputli-Behror district of Rajasthan.
