Lucknow: Are six samosas enough to save a rapist from from the law? That too someone who is accused of having committed the heinous crime on a 14-year-old?
Special POCSO Judge Narendra Pal Rana of a court in Etah, Uttar Pradesh, has quashed a Final Report (FR) filed in the matter after being told that the investigating officer (IO) took a bribe of six samosas to give the accused a clean chit.
The case will now been treated as a complaint and the court will directly hear the matter and determine the further course of action.
According to an FIR registered at the police station, a 14-year-old girl had gone to school on April 1, 2019. While she was returning home at around 1 pm, a man identified as Veeresh, a resident of the same village, followed her and allegedly dragged her to a nearby wheat field where he sexually assaulted her.
The girl’s screams alerted two locals who rushed to the spot. Veeresh allegedly fled after abusing the girl with caste-based slurs and threatening to kill her.
The survivor’s father has alleged that the police displayed a biased attitude from the outset. Initially, they refused to register the complaint, prompting the girl’s father to approach the court. The case was subsequently registered under the POCSO Act following a court order.
Despite the case being registered under the POCSO Act, the IO submitted an FR before the court on December 30, 2024, claiming there was no evidence. In response, the survivor’s father filed a protest petition on June 27, 2025.
The petition alleged that the officer failed to record the statements of eye witnesses who were present at the spot, and that the victim herself had stated in her testimony that she was raped. He claimed, the investigation into such a serious matter was carried out in a flawed and negligent manner.
He further alleged that the accused, Veeresh, owns a samosa shop, and that the IO visited the shop, accepted six samosas, and subsequently filed a false report. Furthermore, in the FR, the officer claimed that the survivor had asked Veeresh for samosas on credit, and when he refused, a dispute broke out-leading to what the officer described as a case filed with fabricated allegations out of malice.
After hearing the accusations against the IO, the court quashed the FR on Monday and decided to directly hear the matter, instead of relying on what the police has to say.
