HC asks UP govt for status report in Bulandshahr gangrape case

The Allahabad High Court has asked the Uttar Pradesh government to produce by tomorrow a status report on the investigation in the Bulandshahr gangrape case after it failed to submit the report today.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice D B Bhosale and Justice Yashwant Varma, which has taken suo motu cognizance of the sexual assault on a minor girl and her mother, had on August 8 directed that the status report be submitted on August 10.

However, when Advocate General Vijay Bahadur Singh made a request for more time to submit the status report, the court ordered that the same be produced "tomorrow, by 2 PM.in a sealed cover".

The court has taken a grim view of the incident that took place on July 29, when a car carrying six members of a Noida family to Shahjahanpur in western UP was stopped by criminals on a highway in Bulandhshahr district and the 13-year-old girl and her mother were gang raped in the fields nearby after being dragged out of the vehicle.

The incident evoked a huge out cry and the Samajwadi Party government in the state drew widespread criticism over the law and order situation in UP.

Besides seeking a status report, the court has sought to know from the state government whether it was "willing to handover investigation of the case to the CBI" and "what steps the state would like to take to avoid such incidents in future".