In the much talked about gang rape case of a BHU IIT student in Banaras, Uttar Pradesh, the Allahabad High Court has granted conditional bail to two accused. At the same time, the bail plea of the third accused will be heard on September 16. There was a lot of uproar in Banaras regarding this incident which took place late night on 2 November 2023 last year. For several days, people kept taking out candle marches to get justice for the victim student. Banaras Police had earlier registered this case under sections of molestation. Later, after the statement before the magistrate, it was amended to sections of gang rape.
According to the case diary, the victim was studying B.Tech second year in BHU IIT. On the night of 2 November, around 1.30 am, she left her hostel New Girls IIT BHU and reached the intersection of Smriti hostel. From where her friend Ritesh also joined her. Both of them had just walked a little distance when three youths on a bike surrounded them near Karman Baba temple. After this, the accused chased Ritesh away, but molested and molested the victim.
There was a lot of uproar in BHU after the incident
The accused had also made a video of this incident. After the accused left, the victim informed the police. After this, the police registered a case against three unknown youths under sections of molestation and started investigating the matter. On the other hand, as soon as other students of BHU came to know about the incident, there was a lot of uproar in Banaras. Many candle marches were taken out. Meanwhile, the police recorded the statement of the victim girl in the court. After this statement, the sections of gang rape were added to the case. As soon as the section of gang rape was added to the case, the pressure on the police to arrest the accused increased.
The accused were arrested after three months
In such a situation, the police arrested three suspected accused on the night of 30 December 2023. These accused were identified as Kunal Pandey, resident of Brij Enclave Colony Sundarpur, Anand alias Abhishek Chauhan, resident of Jivdhipur Bajardiha and Saksham Patel, resident of Bajardiha. The police sent all these accused to jail. At that time, all three accused applied for bail in the lower court, but considering the seriousness of the case, their application was rejected. After this, all three applied for bail in the High Court.
Police accused of arresting people to show good work
It was told that after this incident, the police came under pressure and just to show good work, picked them up and put them in jail. Whereas they had nothing to do with this incident. The lawyer of the accused, calling them innocent, said that even the identification parade of the accused was not conducted under section nine of the Evidence Act. While hearing the case, the High Court accepted that the concept of imprisonment is an exception until the guilt is proven. Then citing the right to life and liberty in Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, the court granted conditional bail to two accused Kunal Pandey and Anand alias Abhishek Chauhan. At the same time, the petition of the third accused Saksham Patel will be heard in the High Court on September 16. Saksham’s bail petition has already been rejected in the High Court once.
