PRAYAGRAJ: The CBI busted a gang that used to falsely accuse people of rape and file criminal charges under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act to extort money from them.

The investigation was started after the Allahabad High Court ordered the investigating agency to launch a preliminary investigation into the gang that is filing false charges against innocent persons last month.

The majority of these cases are reported at the Mauaima police station in the district's trans-Ganga area. In response to a high court attorney's PIL, orders were made for the investigation of 51 rape cases and SC/ST Act violations.
Out of the total cases, 36 are reported to the Mauaima police station, with the remaining cases being filed at various police stations throughout the area.

The CBI team arrived in Prayagraj with a list of 51 cases that had been filed at the police stations in Mauaima, Kydganj, Shivkuti, Baharia, Colonelganj, Phaphamau, and Daraganj. The CBI officials received copies of 24 FIRs filed here, said police officials at the Mauaima police station. The Phapahmau police also handed over a copy of FIR to the CBI in connection with a case of gang rape.
A senior district police official said, the CBI officials would now meet with the victims in the cases that were reported to various police stations and obtain their testimony. In one such case, a woman had earlier this year reported two lawyers to the Daraganj police station for gang rape.

She alleged that the two attorneys gang-raped her young daughter in the backseat of their car. However, it was found during police investigations that the two were unjustly accused, and the victim herself was not aware that her mother had filed a police report for an alleged offence against her.

The two attorneys who were charged with gang rape went to the high court and submitted a PIL. They asserted that a gang operating in the area was responsible for falsely accusing innocent persons of rape, violating the SC/ST Act, and other offences in order to demand money from them.

In response to their PIL, the HIgh court  asked the CBI to initiate inquiry in 51 such cases lodged at Mauaima and other police stations of the district.

In a similar case reported to the Mauaima police station in 2021, a woman accused five members of her village of gang rape. However, the woman then modified her account, and the accuser received no punishment. A final report on the incident had been provided by the police.

A senior police official said, the  copies of the FIRs for the cases listed in the high court ruling have been given to the CBI team. The cases include rape, gang rape, those under SC/ST Act and even of minor assaults registered at some of the police stations, he added.

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