Plant five saplings, will recall arrest warrant: Ghaziabad court tells rape accused

In a first-of-its-kind order, a local court in Ghaziabad recalled its arrest warrant on condition that the accused will plant five saplings, IANS quoted an official as saying on Sunday.

The court further ordered submission of an affidavit regarding compliance of its order, said Rajiv Kumar, Additional District Government Counsellor (ADGC), Ghaziabad district.

The court of special judge (fast track) Rakesh Vashishtha had issued a non-bailable warrant against Raju alias Kallu, a resident of Loni, for not attending trial since last six months in a four-year-old case of kidnapping and rape of a minor.

The accused on Thursday submitted an application in the court seeking recall of the warrant after which the court ordered him to plant five saplings and submit an affidavit in the court to ascertain the compliance.

Rape cases recorded an increase of 12.4 per cent from 34,651 cases in the country in 2015 to 38,947 in 2016.

Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh reported the maximum cases of rape at 4,882 (12.5 per cent) and 4,816 (12.4 per cent), followed by Maharashtra 4,189 cases (10.7 per cent) in 2016, according to data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).