NHRC Issues Notices to Defence Secretary, Pune Police Over Rape of Woman at Military Hospital

Indore: The National Human Right Commission (NHRC) has issued notices to Defence secretary and Pune Police commissioner and sought their replies in connection with alleged rape of a 34-year-old woman employee of a military hospital in Pune district of Maharashtra in 2015, said an activist.

Human rights activist Jayesh Rajpurohit, who had lodged a complaint with the NHRC based on media reports, said the commission has taken cognisance of his plea.

The NHRC issued notices on December 18 and sought a compliance report as per section 166 (A) of the IPC in four weeks, he added.

On October 16, the Pune Police booked four Army personnel for allegedly raping the 34-year-old speech-and hearing-impaired woman employee of the military hospital.

The alleged offence took place between January and June 2015 at the hospital in Pune's Khadki suburb. The woman had been working at the facility since 2014. "According to the woman's complaint, she was on night duty (at the hospital) when she was allegedly raped by one of the accused, who at the time was posted at the hospital," a senior police official had said.

"When the survivor told another personnel about the incident, he initially told her that he would reprimand the accused. But he too sought sexual favours from her by threatening her to make the message viral, and allegedly raped her. After some days, two more personnel approached the woman and allegedly took advantage of her," he had said.

The woman, a class IV employee at the hospital, had approached an NGO in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, earlier this year about her plight. The NGO subsequently approached the Indore police.

On October 16, the Indore Police informed their Pune counterpart about the matter, which registered a case against the four personnel under IPC sections 376 (rape) and 354 (molestation).

Besides the police, the army too is conducting a 'court of inquiry' against the four personnel, who also worked in the same military hospital at the time.

An official of the Army's Southern Command had said they were conducting an inquiry into the matter. "The court of inquiry was initiated well before the police complaint was registered," he had said.