Rape accused, inter-faith couple beaten up on court campuses

Varanasi: The district court campuses of Jaunpur and Varanasi witnessed high drama in the past 48 hours. While in Jaunpur police and lawyers had to intervene to separate two groups of people who clashed after a Muslim youth reached there with a girl of another community to get their ‘marriage’ registered on Monday. In Varanasi, a rape accused was assaulted by some youths who sported a saffron ‘gamcha’ (scarf), when the police were going to produce him in the court.
Taking note of the Varanasi incident, SSP Anand Kulkarni has ordered to lodge an FIR against the assailants. Role of the police would also be probed.
In Jaunpur, a Muslim youth along with a woman of another community and his friends reached the district court campus on Monday for registration of ‘marriage’. However, chaos prevailed when family members of the girl reached there and clashed with the youth and his friends. Lawyers and policemen present there had to intervene to separate them. Later, when the youth misbehaved with the lawyers, they beat him black and blue.
Inspector, Line Bazar, Sanjiv Mishra along with police force reached there and rescued the youth. While the girl was taken home by her family, police took the youth to police station.
Mishra said, “The youth has informed us that he had already married the girl and had come to the court for registration of their interfaith marriage. As no group gave any complaint in this connection, no case has been registered.”
Earlier on Sunday, city’s Kotwali police had to exercise hard to save one Shahnawaz, accused of raping a minor girl in Rajmandir locality on June 8, from a group of youths donning saffron ‘gamchas’ (scarf) as they attacked him in front of police.
Due to weekly holiday, the district court campus was deserted. When two cops brought Shahnawaz to produce him before the court of remand magistrate, four-five youths assaulted him.
Though Inspector Cantt Vijay Pratap Singh denied any such incident, the SSP took cognizance of the incident when a video of the incident went viral on social media.
Kulkarni said following initial probe, order has been issued to lodge an FIR in this connection. The role of police will also be probed, he added.