Facts Of The Baghpat Case Where It’s Alleged That A Woman Was Kidnapped On Her Way To Medical Test

The official Twitter account of Uttar Pradesh’s Congress unit put out a post on Tuesday that a “rape victim” in the state’s Baghpat district had been kidnapped by some men in a car while she was on her way to the district hospital for a medical examination.

“Chief minister Yogi Adityanath who lies on television must be ashamed of himself,” the tweet further said (translated from Hindi).

The tweet was in response to an earlier post by the UP unit of Bharatiya Janata Party, where the UP chief minister was seen claiming that women safety had improved under his governance.

Reacting to the post by the Congress, the BJP account called it “fake news”. It also gave link of a video statement by Baghpat superintendent of police, saying the woman was not kidnapped but had gone with her boyfriend on her own free will.

What is the case?

On 6 September, a first information report (FIR) was filed at Baleni police station in Baghpat (FIR number 98/2021), on complaint by a woman, Shazia (name changed to protect identity).

The statement in the FIR said that Shazia, who is married and has children, was sleeping on her cot around 4 am when Shera, who is son of her husband’s elder brother, came to her.

Shera raped her after threatening her of dire consequences if she alerted anyone. Shazia’s elder daughter saw it and rushed to her grandmother, who immediately called her son (Shazia’s husband Shaukeen) from his tailoring shop. The family then came to the police station, the statement said (see the screenshot of the FIR below).

The police booked Shera (son of Mohammed Jamshad) for rape (IPC section 376) and criminal intimidation (506).

As per the procedure, Shazia had to undergo a medical test to ascertain sexual assault.

The date was fixed the next day – that is, 7 September (Tuesday). However, Shazia went missing from outside the district hospital in the morning.

SP Jadaun told this correspondent on 8 September (Wednesday) that the woman was recovered the same day. She was found in Meerut city, which is around 30 kilometres away.

In her statement to the police (recorded under Section 161 of the CrPC), Shazia, who is around 30 years of age, said that she had willingly gone with Shera, SP Jadaun said.

Shazia told the police that she had been in a relationship with Shera for some time and had filed the rape complaint against him under pressure from her in-laws’ family, SP Jadaun said.

Asked how did the news of her “kidnapping” start, SP Jadaun said he was yet to find that out. “Like you, I am also looking for the source that started this rumour,” he said.

He said that on Tuesday morning, a woman constable had scheduled with Shazia a meeting at the gate of the district hospital. The constable had spotted Shazia, but before they could meet, Shazia went out of sight.

Jadaun said that Shazia’s in-laws’ family or husband did not give a missing persons’ complaint to the police and verbally told the cops that she had gone with Shera.

Local media had published news of her kidnapping

Notably, online editions of several Hindi newspapers put out reports on Tuesday claiming that the woman had been kidnapped while on her way to a medical examination.

An Amar Ujala report published yesterday, which appears to be the first report making the kidnapping claim and was titled ‘यूपी: बागपत में पुलिस सुरक्षा के बीच दुष्कर्म पीड़िता का अपहरण, ई रिक्शा से लेकर फरार हुए कार सवार’ said that the woman was sitting in an e-rickshaw but was pulled out of the vehicle and forced to sit in a car by a group of men.

The information was attributed to no source.

A report by Hindustan, titled ‘यूपी : पुलिस सुरक्षा में मेडिकल कराने जा रही रेप पीड़िता का अपहरण’ made a similar claim about the woman being pulled out of an e-rickshaw and forced into a car, again attributing the information to no source.

A report by Dainik Jagran, titled 'बागपत में कलक्ट्रेट के पास दिनदहाड़े दुष्कर्म पीड़‍िता का अपहरण, कार सवार चार लोगों ने दिया घटना को अंजाम' also made a similar claim, but additionally wrote that the number of “kidnappers” were four. They also attributed the information to no source.

Cops at the Baleni station also shared with this correspondent a video of Shazia on Whatsapp, recorded by cops themselves.

Shazia is seen saying that outside the hospital, when the constable was paying an auto-rickshaw, Shazia quickly boarded a vehicle after requesting the driver to drop her at the bus stand. “I did not want to frame an innocent,” Shazia is heard saying. She said she went to the bus stand, from where she boarded a bus to Meerut to meet Shera.