The Municipal Corporation team on Wednesday (October 4) demolished the house of the accused, Bharat Soni, in a significant development in the Ujjain minor rape case in Madhya Pradesh.
According to reports, the man accused of raping a teenage girl's house was demolished because it was allegedly built illegally.
Last week, videos of a 15-year-old girl, semi-naked and bleeding, going door-to-door asking for help sparked outrage across the country. Bharat Soni, an auto-rickshaw driver, was arrested on Thursday in the case. Bharat is currently being held in jail awaiting trial. According to the Ujjain Municipal Corporation, his family has been living in the house on government land for years.
According to Municipal Commissioner Roshan Singh, the land belongs to the government and thus no notice is required for its demolition. Tomorrow, the municipal body will take action in collaboration with the Madhya Pradesh police. Bharat was apprehended following a lengthy investigation that included reviewing footage from nearly 700 CCTV cameras.
"The investigation involved 30 to 35 people. No one slept for three or four days," senior police officer Ajay Verma told NDTV.
On September 26, videos of a minor girl who was haggard, bleeding, and begging for help went viral on social media. A CCTV camera on Badnagar Road, about 15 kilometres from Ujjain, captured the girl, who was dressed in rags and going door-to-door seeking help. The chilling footage, which shocked the country, showed people shoving the girl away as she approached them one by one.
The minor girl, exhausted and traumatised, wandered aimlessly through the streets, her body barely covered by a tattered cloth. Her plight reached an ashram not far from her location. When a priest noticed she had been sexually assaulted, he wrapped her in a towel and rushed her to a nearby hospital. The medical exam confirmed her worst fears: she had been raped.
Because the girl's injuries were severe, she was rushed to Indore for specialised medical attention.
Bharat, the accused, was apprehended three days later. The accused attempted to flee while reenacting the crime scene in order to collect evidence, including ripped clothing, but was apprehended quickly.