Charges framed against Daati Maharaj in rape case, case will be filed against both the brothers too

New Delhi: A fast track court on Friday passed an order to start the trial against Madan Lal Rajasthani alias Daati Maharaj, founder of Shanidham in Fatehpur Beri, and his/her two brothers in a rape case registered in 2018. The court passed this order framing rape charges against the three. Additional Sessions Judge Neha framed charges of rape and other offences against Madan Lal Rajasthani and his/her two brothers Ashok and Arjun. The accused persons present in the court refused to confess to the crime, following which the order to start the trial was issued. The court has ordered to start the process of recording prosecution evidence from October 18.

On 3 October 2018, the High Court had handed over the responsibility of further investigation in this case to the CBI. This order was given on the demand of the victim, who had then raised some questions about the investigation of the Crime Branch in the case. On the rape complaint filed by the victim girl against Daati on 7 June 2018, the police registered an FIR on 11 June 2018.

Understand the whole matter
In 2019, a chargesheet was filed on serious charges of rape and intimidation, in which Daati and his/her three brothers-Ashok, Arjun and Anil were accused under sections 376 (rape), 377 (unnatural sex), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC. Meanwhile, the case was transferred to the CBI, which conducted further investigation and filed a supplementary chargesheet on September 4, 2020 against Daati and his/her two brothers on charges of rape. Based on the statement of the victim, the CBI named Neetu alias Maa Shraddha and Neema Joshi as accused in its chargesheet. Despite specific allegations against both of them, the Crime Branch had not made them accused.

Five years on fast track
In December 2019, the hearing of this case was handed over to the fast track court. But, it took almost five years for the fast track court to frame charges in the case. The court started hearing arguments for framing charges from March 3, 2020. After that, the date for pronouncing the order on the charges was fixed six times from May 17, 2023 till now.

fear haunting the victim
The victim did not seem happy at all with Friday’s proceedings. Her lawyer Pradeep Tiwari said that despite the case being in a fast track court, the slow pace of proceedings has broken the morale of the complainant. She is very afraid that in these six years every effort must have been made to influence the witnesses and evidence of the case. In such a situation, she has now lost hope of getting justice to a great extent. Despite the attack on the victim’s lawyer, he/she was denied police protection.