The CBI has busted a gang that used to file false rape and criminal cases under Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act to blackmail people for extorting money in Prayagraj.
The probe was initiated after the Allahabad high court, last month, directed the investigation agency to conduct a preliminary inquiry into the gang, which is lodging fake cases against innocent people.
Most of these cases are registered at Mauaima police station in the trans-Ganga region of the district.
Orders were issued for investigation of 51 cases of rape and SC/ST Act on the PIL of a high court lawyer.
Among the total cases, 36 are registered at Mauaima police station while others are lodged at other police stations of the district.
The CBI team reached Prayagraj with a list of 51 cases registered at Mauaima, Kydganj, Shivkuti, Baharia, Colonelganj, Phaphamau and Daraganj police stations.
Police officials at Mauaima police station said the CBI officials were provided with copies of 24 FIRs lodged here.
The Phapahmau police also handed over a copy of FIR to the CBI in connection with a case of gang rape.
The CBI officials will now meet the victims in the cases registered at different police stations and take their statements, informed a senior district police official.
In one such case, a woman had lodged a case of gang rape against two lawyers at Daraganj police station earlier this year.
She claimed that the two lawyers had gang-raped her minor daughter in their car. However, during police investigations, it came to fore that the duo was falsely implicated and the victim herself was unaware that her mother had lodged an FIR for an alleged crime committed against her.
The two lawyers accused of gang-rape, approached the high court and filed a PIL. They claimed that a gang active in the district was involved in implicating innocent people in fake cases of rape, SC/ST Act, etc with intention of extorting money from them.
In response to their PIL, the HC asked the CBI to initiate inquiry in 51 such cases lodged at Mauaima and other police stations of the district.
In another such case lodged at Mauaima police station in 2021, a woman had lodged a case of gang-rape against five people of her village. However, the woman later changed her statement and no action was taken against the accused. The police had submitted a final report in the case.
A senior police official said the CBI team has been provided with the copies of FIRs of the cases mentioned in the order of the high court. The cases include rape, gang rape, those under SC/ST Act and even of minor assaults registered at some of the police stations, he added.
(The story has been published via a syndicated feed with a modified headline)
