Meghalaya police officer charged with rape flees from custody

Meghalaya Director General of Police Prem Singh today said look out notices have been sent to all the states in the country as raids conducted in various places in the state and neighbouring Assam to catch Nurul Islam, the police officer, did not yield any result.u00a0

He said the police had also petitioned a local court here to proclaim Islam as an offender. Police said Islam headed a police station in the South West Garo Hills district headquarter Ampati and had allegedly picked up the two sisters from a local park along with the boys with whom they were playing.

He took them to the police station and allowed the boys to go but asked the two girls to stay behind. He then allegedly molested the two sisters and raped the elder one at the police station itself on March 13.

He had allegedly repeated the crime on March 31 after forcing himself into the girls' house in a nearby village, district deputy commissioner Ram Singh said.

The police officer was taken into custody only on June 1 after an FIR was lodged against him by the girls' father charging him with molesting and raping them.

However, he escaped from the government quarters where he was kept in custody at around midnight, Singh said. It is being suspected that Islam has crossed over to Bangladesh taking advantage of the porous international border, the police said.u00a0

Meghalaya has a 443-km border with Bangladesh, parts of which are porous and bad terrain areas are difficult to man. These unfenced pockets are used by infiltrators, smugglers, militants and criminals.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has sought a detailed report on the incident from the government.u00a0