Jharkhand rape: School head didn’t inform cops, booked

Khunti (Jharkhand), June 23

The head of the Kochange village school, from where five women working with an NGO were allegedly abducted and later gangraped, has been booked for not reporting the incident to police, an official said on Saturday.

The police have also released a sketch of one of the five accused and announced a reward of Rs 50,000 for providing information about them, Khunti SP Aswini Kumar Sinha said.

While an FIR was filed on Thursday against unidentified persons involved in the gangrape in Khunti district, another case was registered against Father Alfonso Alien at the Arki police station on Friday, he said. Father Alfonso Alien, who runs the missionary school from where the women were abducted, was detained on Thursday for questioning and later released on a personal bond, he said.

The SP also said the statements of the victims and their colleagues were recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC. Five women working with an NGO were allegedly raped at gunpoint by a group of at least five men when they had gone to the village to spread awareness on migration and human trafficking on Tuesday. Initial investigation has found that the people behind ‘Pathalgarhi’ (a practice in which villagers inscribe various tenets on huge stone slabs and ban outsiders in their area), were behind the incident, Deputy Inspector General of Police Amol V Homker had said. — PTI

Artistes Won’t work for 10 days

• Artistes of Jamshedpur on Saturday said they won’t perform for 10 days in protest against the gangrape of five women in Khunti district
• In a memorandum to CM Raghuvar Das, the artistes demanded immediate arrest of all culprits, stringent action against them, and adequate compensation for the victims
• In the memorandum, sent by artistes from various organisations, they described the gangrape as “heinous and inhuman” and said artistes should be issued I-cards