Rape accused surrenders months after faking death in Bihar

PATNA: A relentless fight by a mother to ensure justice to her young daughter, who underwent extreme sexual horrors, has eventually landed the rape accused teacher in jail months after he faked death by lying on funeral pyres with his body wrapped in shrouds to mislead the court and escapes arrest. The man officially declared ‘dead’ surrendered in the Bhagalpur court on Monday. He was sent to jail.
The incident relates to 2018 in a village under Ishipur-Barahat police station area in Bhagalpur district. His father who ‘filmed’ the last rites scenes of his son to mislead the authorities, has also been arrested.
According to the police, the victim, a minor girl, used to visit Niraj Modi, a teacher at a local government middle school, for tuition classes. The accused allegedly raped her. On October 18, 2018, her mother registered a case with the local police against the teacher.
However, the accused came out with a weird idea of faking his death to escape jail in the case registered under Pocso Act. “The accused lay on a funeral pyre with his body wrapped in a shroud while his father shot the entire scene in his camera,” investigating officer Rohit Kumar Paswan told TOI on Wednesday.
Based on the photographs of the funeral, his father Raja Ram Modi procured a fake death certificate from the panchayat on April 19 this year and submitted it to the court. “In the light of the affidavit and death certificate submitted by the father of the accused, the case stands closed now,” special POCSO court of 7th ADJ, Bhagalpur, mentioned in his order on May 7 this year. The copy of the death certificate, photographs of fake funerals as well as the order of the court are in possession of TOI.
The story took a curious turn when the victim’s mother got to know from court sources and local villagers that the accused was alive and petitioned the local BDO to reopen the case. “During inquiry, the matter was found to be true and the father of the accused was sent to jail,” Pirpaiti BDO Chandan Kumar Chaturvedi told TOI.
Eventually, the alleged rapist surrendered in the court on Monday and remanded to 14-day judicial custody, special public prosecutor JK Gupta said.
The victim's mother is happy. “I ran from pillar to post to get justice and am happy to see them at the right place,” the woman told the local media on Wednesday. However, she wants death sentence for such accused.
(With inputs from Rajiv Kumar in Begusarai)
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)