It has been quite some time since the heavy-handedness of the Uttar Pradesh Police has come to the limelight. Peaceful demonstrators against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act have been thrashed, threatened on camera and even warned of disastrous consequences.?
The entire state has plunged into a dark era of sorts ever since the resistance against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act began to mount. Numerous instances of the imposition of arbitrary laws and sections, such as Section 144 that prohibits peaceful gatherings and internet shutdown, have been reported from the state.?
The state machinery has itself gone on a rampage and over a dozen protesters have been killed while hundreds have been detained in the northern state that has Yogi Adityanath as the Chief Minister. The police have also been caught on the camera threatening protesters with dire consequences, and in some cases even destroying the CCTV cameras and vandalising property in minority areas. The Yogi government would want the people to believe that its state machinery is doing so to restore law and order but it could not be further from the truth.?
Protests and dissent are democratic rights of citizens that are enshrined in the constitution of India and are guaranteed to every citizen of the country.?
On the other hand, crimes against women, including rapes and sexual offences, are punishable offences according to the laws. The state of Uttar Pradesh is infamous on this front and the figures coming out from the state are so shameful that not a day goes by when rapes do not occur. On top of that, there is a rising trend to throttle the victim by killing, torturing or even burning her.?
Add to it the sexual exploitation of minors and once again, Uttar Pradesh is shaming its people. Sexual harassment and rapes of minors are emerging on a dangerous rate from the state.??
Now, a five-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a minor boy on a vacant quarter in a meat plant in Muzaffarnagar district. The incident took place in Alnoor meat plant compound under Sikheda police station area on Saturday. Parents of both the victim and the accused (14) work at the meat plant, the police said.
According to the complaint lodged by the girl's family, the accused took her to the vacant quarter and raped her, news agency PTI reported.?
Similarly, just a few days ago, a rape victimĄŻs mother was fatally attacked by two absconding accused.
Another incident that comes to mind is the that of a minor, who was abducted and gang-raped by three youths when she was collecting fodder in a field in Mathura.?
The girl had accompanied her grandmother to the field. She was collecting fodder when the three youths abducted her. She was later found unconscious near the field and a motorbike was also recovered from the spot, agencies reported.?
The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 was enacted to provide a robust legal framework for the protection of children from offences of sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography, while safeguarding the interest of the child at every stage of the judicial process. The framing of the Act seeks to put children first by making it easy to use by including mechanisms for child-friendly reporting, recording of evidence, investigation and speedy trial of offences through designated Special Courts.
So the UP Police and government are hoping to teach the protesters a lesson by muzzling them whereas the spirits of miscreants and anti-social elements are so emboldened in the state that they do not fear or even think twice before raping and even killing the victim. What does this say about law and order in the state??