Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu is on a sticky wicket following an alleged gang-rape charge by a woman from West Siang district against him. The woman approached the National Commission for Women on Thursday with a complaint that she had been gang-raped by three persons, allegedly including chief minister Pema Khandu, eight years ago.
Filing a complaint through her lawyer under Section 10 of National Commission for Women Act, the lady has accused Khandu, Phurpa Lama Thumpeen Tashi, a teacher of the Tawang Higher Secondary School, and Dorjee Wangchu of gang raping her in the month of July 2008.
“I have suffered immense mental agony for endless time before gathering courage to lodge complaint against them at the Itanagar women police station, the victim said.
In her complaint the lady said she was a resident of Dorzeling Village in Arunachal West Siang District and had come to Tawang District in search of a job. She has claimed first she came into contact with Phurpa Lama, who in turn asked her to meet a “few powerful persons” at the Tawang Circuit House. In her complaint before the NCW, Samchung has claimed that she was given a cold drink with some intoxicant that made her unconscious.
“I was given some intoxicant mixed with cold drink which rendered me senseless. I was repeatedly gang-raped by above named persons. When I came back to senses, I saw the man who was raping me at that time. He introduced himself as Colonel Pema Khandu. When I tried to resist, he slapped me hard…..”
She said that it took her seven years to gather courage to file a complaint against Khandu and others.
She claimed that she had filed two FIRs, one in December 2015 and the other in January 2016, in the Itanagar Women Police Station, but came away disappointed, as the officer in charge refused to register the FIRs. She alleged even the Superintendent of Police failed to act on her complaint. She also alleged the court of the chief judicial magistrate has dismissed her complaint as being without merit.
“My client has levelled allegations of rape against Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu. It is a 2008 incident. She had approached police and court who did not register her complaint. The victim was and is very scared. This courageous woman has filed her complaint before National Commission for Women in Delhi,” the lawyer of the victim told Northeast Now.