Union minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot, who recently visited Kerala and met the family of the Dalit woman, who was brutally raped and killed in Ernakulam district, on Monday tabled a report in Parliament, alleging laxity and delay in police probe into the case.
“It is not clear exactly when the District Collector was informed about the incident. The initial probe started with the charge of murder. Relevant sections of rape were added later. The postmortem report was available after four days of the incident. Evidence from the crime scene could have been lost in between,” he said.
‘Since the deceased was from the SC community, a senior police officer of the level of DSP should have been entrusted with the investigation at the outset without waiting for the apprehension of the accused,” the Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment said in the report.
Considering the “severity and sensitivity” of the crime, an SIT should have been formed at the very outset, he said and questioned why an FIR in the case was not lodged by the victim’s mother, despite her being present at the crime scene, but by a panchayat member.
The postmortem did not specifically mention rape. However, Section 376 of IPC was added to it on April 29. Also, there was a delay of four days in submitting the report to court which was not adequately explained, Gehlot said.