Patna, April 7: Sudden increase in criminal incidents against women has forced the crime graph in the state capital head north. The police seem to be on a shaky ground over the gangrape of a teenaged girl on April 4 and with each passing day, the pressure to make a breakthrough in the case keeps getting bigger.

The police have failed to make any arrest apart from the two caught with the help of representatives of Police Public Jan Sahyog Samiti. They have also drawn a lot of flak on being unable to track a khaki-clad man accused of molesting a girl in an autorickshaw in February.

In the latest challenge to the police, five men picked up a 12-year-old girl from her Kamla Nehru Nagar residence under Kotwali police station and then raped her at a secluded spot. She was found in an unconscious state on Amarnath Road under the same police station. The girl’s parents lodged a missing complaint with the police the same day.

However, the police did not take any action on the case. In the evening, P.K. Nirala, the president of the Police Public Jan Sahyog Samiti, a group formed with the help of the police to contain criminal incidents in Kotwali, spotted the girl lying by the roadside and took her to hospital. The police was apprised thereafter.

With the girl revealing the identities of her attackers, the group managed to nab two among them, identified as Suraj Paswan and Mohammed Shahabuddin, both residents of Kamla Nagar and handed them to Kotwali police station.

When The Telegraph contacted Kotwali police station today, a police officer said: “Two people have been caught and the police are trying hard to arrest the remaining three. They are absconding.”

The girl hails from a poor family, her father sells tobacco from a mobile cart.

Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) Alok Kumar stated that the matter would be investigated thoroughly and the inactive role of the police would be probed.

The officer said if the police are found guilty, they will face strict action.

Apart from releasing a sketch of the suspect drawn by the victim, the police were not able to nab the man who had abused and groped a schoolgirl near JD Women’s College on February 27. The SSP had earlier said the police could not find the man, as no member of the public had come and identified him. “It is strange that the police are dependant on the public to arrest an eve-teaser. Why do the police not try themselves?” said Sudha Rai, a middle-aged woman working with a private bank.

On March 4 this year, an entire group of students of the Government Middle School, Sheikhpura under Airport police station attacked jawans of the Sixth Battalion of Bihar Military Police (BMP), accusing them with constant harassment and teasing. The BMP administrative office and at least four residential quarters stand on the school premises.

On December 4 last year, a middle-aged NGO worker was raped by two autorickshaw drivers at a secluded spot in Valmi of Phulwarisharif. The culprits were later arrested.

Policemen have admitted the rise in crime against women. “The fact cannot be denied. There have been quite a few incidents of eve-teasing involving cops, but those are mere exceptions,” a police officer said.