Punjab: IPS Officer Dr Pragya Jain Comes To Aid Of 7-Yr-Old Rape Survivor In Ludhiana

Going beyond the call of duty, a women IPS Officer in Ludhiana helped a minor rape survivor on Wednesday, February 16.

A seven-year-old rape survivor, who suffers from Down's Syndrome, was abandoned by her mother at a hospital. Pragya Jain, the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADPC) stayed with the special child to look after her medicines, meals, and to provide moral support to her.

On February 10, the minor was taken to a local hospital by her mother, alleging that she had been raped at her school, where she was a nursery student. But, when the police looked for the details of the incident, the mother vanished from the hospital, leaving the child alone.

Last week, the incident came to the limelight and grabbed the headlines when the police solved the case within hours and arrested the survivor's teenage brother as the main accused in the case.

The 2017-batch IPS officer, Pragya Jain, said she couldn't hold her back after seeing the child in pain and decided to stay back with her at the hospital. She remained awake throughout the first night when the rape survivor could not sleep in the hospital, The Tribune reported.

The ADCP, Special Branch and Community Affairs, who also holds a bachelor of homoeopathic medicine and surgery degree, ran her own clinic in Delhi for seven years before cracking the UPSC exam in 2016.

Jain provided meals, medications, other requisites, besides moral support to the special child during her stay in the hospital.

The Ludhiana Commissionerate Police, led by the Commissioner of Police Rakesh Agrawal, arranged counselling by availing the child protection officer's services to bring the rape survivor out of the trauma, which the minor was going through.

The Ludhiana police chief said that they traced out the case, and the accused turned out to be no one else but her 13-year-old brother.

He further added that they would be providing counselling to the survivor with the Child Welfare Committee and Social and Child Welfare Department's help, besides arranging her monetary support with the help of the NGOs.

Initially, the survivor's mother alleged that the crime had taken place in the school. According to the police investigations, after scanning several CCTV footages, the police caught the survivors' mother lying when the footage captured the girl coming in good condition from school to her home with her mother on the day of the incident.

Another video clip revealed the woman was carrying the child in her lap from home to the hospital after the incident.

In her statement, the minor confirmed the police theory.

The police immediately registered the case against the survivor's teenage brother. The family and their neighbours resorted to protest by blocking vehicular traffic.

As the police looked after the survivor, a rumour was spread about the child's death, which later turned the protesters violent.

The ADCP led a police team to appease the protesters by assuring that the child is under medical assistance and was recovering.

"Not ready to listen, the mob started pelting stones at our team. As the bystanders, including women and children, were at risk, we saved them at great risk to our own safety," revealed Jain, who headed the operation to control the mob.

To ensure a fair investigation, the Commissioner of Police has formed a three-member special investigation team (SIT), comprising JCP City Deepak Pareek and ADCPs Dr Pragya Jain and Rupinder Kaur Sra. Agrawal has directed the SIT to thoroughly investigate the matter and submit its report at the earliest.

Recently, the Punjab State Commission for Protection of Child Rights Chairman Rajinder Singh met the survivor. He directed the district administration to arrange compensation to the victim through the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA).

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