I used to call him 'chacha', and he raped me: Survivor

The woman meets RPF hawaldar PK Singh at Diva in 2015 while she is looking for a job. They stay in touch. Illustrations/Ravi Jadhav

The blot on the uniform of the city's law enforcers is getting deeper. This time, a 23-year-old woman has accused three Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel, including one of inspector rank, of raping her inside the RPF thana at Diva railway station. The woman alleges that she was tricked into coming to the station in the wee hours, and raped after being offered a spiked drink.

In January, one of Singh's colleagues, MS Bhagel, calls her 25 times. When she answers, he tells her PK Singh has met with an accident

While the incident occurred this January, the police officials allegedly continued to torture her for months after, threatening to get her arrested in a fake case if she complained.

When she goes to the police station, she realises she has been lured under a false pretext and her terrible ordeal begins

Finally, last week, she mustered the courage to approach GRP commissioner Niket Kaushik, and narrated her ordeal to him; the RPF comes under the Government Railway Police (GRP). Kaushik immediately instructed DCP (Central Railway) Rupali Ambure to record the woman's statement and initiate an inquiry.

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On September 1, DCP Amburerecorded a detailed statement of the woman at her office. An FIR is yet to be lodged in the case because the woman is unable to recall a few details accurately. Once this is sorted out, an FIR will be lodged, DCP Ambure has said.

The ordeal
"On the night of January 14, around 10 pm, I got a call from constable Mahendra Singh Bhagel," said the woman, who works with a cosmetics shop in Dombivli.

The woman, who is from Bhadohi, Uttar Pradesh, had met Bhagel and the alleged rapist cops, constable B K Singh and officer Deepak Rathore through the third alleged rapist RPF hawaldar PK Singh, whom she had met in 2015 while looking for a job in Mumbai.

The woman said, "I had ignored Bhagel's call because I was too tired but between 10 pm and 2 am, he had called 25 times.When I finally picked up the call, he said PK Singh had met with an accident and told me to come to the RPF chowky. I rushed there, only to find PK Singh completely fine," she said.

Liquor and porn
Inside the chowky, I saw PK Singh and his colleagues watching porn on their computer and drinking liquor. They told me to waitin another room as they had called me for some important work, she said. "They gave me a soft drink while I waited. Sometime later, PK Singh told me to come along with him. He said he wanted to show me something. He then took me to the room of a senior officer. He pushed me inside the room and locked the door from the outside. I started shouting for him to open the door. I had also started feeling dizzy. I got even more scared when I saw that BK Singh and Rathore were already inside the room.

'Do whatever he says'
She said, when she was begging for PK Singh to open the door, he told her, "Wo jo bolte hain waisa kar lo, bohot din se unki aurat nahi aayi hai (Do whatever he says, his wife hasn't met him for long)." Rathore and BK Singh then grabbed the woman who struggled violently. "During the scuffle, Rathore told me that he would get me a job if I did what he wanted. When I started shouting, they forced me on to one of the tables in the room and then raped me one by one," the woman said.

'Slapped, raped me'
"I was in a semi-conscious and seminude state and in a lot of pain. I was scared that my family would be defamed now. While they were leaving the room, PK Singh entered. By then I had gained consciousness and was furious with Singh," she said. But, Singh just slapped her and forced himself on her on the same table. "After raping me, PK Singh threatened me saying ifI told anyone about this, he would get me arrested by the GRP in a fake case," the woman said. She was then allowed to go home. The woman's ordeal had, however, only just begun.

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The cops continued to call her at odd hours. "PK Singh once called me at 2 am to the chowky and made me dance for them. As they knew I was scared, they would abuse and harass me," she said.

"PK Singh would tell me to sleep with people he knew in Kalyan, Dombivli and Kalwa. These also included boys who sold general items on local trains. I don't know how I bore this torture for so many months."

Frustrated with the continued harassment, the woman even broke her SIM card and started using a new one.

A few months ago, the woman approached the Kalwa GRP to complain, but the cops there allegedly did not entertain her. Outside the chowky, she met a social activist Mohan Bitla, to whom she narrated everything. Bitla suggested that she meet senior police officers.

'Fair investigation'
Senior GRP officers told mid-day that it was a sensitive matter as serious allegations had been made against the security personnel. The officers said there were a few parts in the woman's statement that were unclear.

"As the incident took place around eight months back, she does not recall a few things clearly. However, ensuring a fair investigation, a preliminary inquiry to verify the allegations of the woman has been started and once facts corroborating the allegations emerge in the probe, an FIR will immediately be registered," said DCP Ambure.

Despite repeated attempts Inspector in-charge Diva RPF Thana, Rajkumar Dhanvij remained unavailable for comment.

'I wanted to kill myself'
The woman said, "I was devastated by what PK Singh and his colleagues had done to me that I wanted to kill myself. It was only the thought of my 4-year-old daughter back in UP that is keeping me alive. I want to do something for her."

'Ran away from home'
The woman, who has a son and a daughter, said she had run away from her in-laws' house in mid-2014 to start a life afresh in Mumbai. She said she had been married at the age of 16 to a man from Varanasi.

The marriage, however, was one of mental and physical harassment at the hands of her in-laws and husband.

A few years ago, she took her daughter and ran away to her parents' house, leaving her son behind. There, she realised that her family, too, did not support her and in 2014, she ran away to Mumbai.

The woman found rented accommodation at Diva. One day, after returning from giving a job interview, the woman met PK Singh. As Singh was from UP, the woman thought he may help her find a job. He promised to help and the two stayed in touch.

"I used to call him chacha [uncle] and he would call me beta. I never doubted his intentions. I used to go to his Diva office to request him to find a job for me. There I met his colleagues BK Singh and Bhagel," she said.