On Saturday (21st October), a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court acquitted all 15 accused in the 2005 Mau riots gangrape case.
On Saturday, the CBI court acquitted advocate Triveni Prasad and 14 other people of rape accusations after the CBI failed to support its charges in the chargesheet. Triveni Prasad said that back in 2005, when Mau used to be a stronghold of the mafia Mukhtar Ansari, cases were registered against him and other accused persons under the pressure of the Ansari and the then government.
In this case, the CBI had filed a chargesheet against the accused persons on 4th October 2010. During the trial, Mau residents recorded their statements in support of the 15 accused persons.
“After one and a half months of the Mau riots, a rape case was lodged against 15 persons of Mau, including myself, under the pressure of the then government and Mukhtar Ansari,” said Triveni Prasad adding that even the court had raised questions over the CBI chargesheet.
During the hearing in the matter on Saturday, the lawyer representing the accused persons said that the minor victim of the gangrape was provided medical treatment one week after the incident. Moreover, medical examination of the victims was conducted over a month later. He added that even 65 to 70-year-old men were made accused in the case.
Notably, on October 15, 2005, when Uttar Pradesh’s Mau was burning in the fire of communal violence, a mother-daughter duo was allegedly gang-raped and their house was set ablaze by a mob in the City Kotwali area. The investigation into the matter was handed over to CBI in 2006. Since then the trial was ongoing and on October 21st, 2023, the court acquitted the 15 accused persons.
Mau Riots 2005
In 2002, Bahujan Samaj Party leader and dreaded gangster Mukhtar Ansari was re-elected as an MLA from Mau. Three years later, the infamous communal riots erupted in Mau. It is said that Mukhtar Ansari was the mastermind of the riots. In a conversation with OpIndia earlier this year, a social activist from Mau named Chhote Lal Gandhi detailed the atrocities of the 2005 Mau riots.
In June this year, Ansari was awarded life imprisonment in the 1991 Awadhesh Rai murder case.
