[ Bengia Ajum ]
MIAO, 29 Dec: A 16-year-old girl from Vijaynagar circle in Changlang district has alleged that an assistant engineer and a junior engineer of the rural works department (RWD) molested her on the 10th of this month.
In this regard, an FIR has been lodged against AE Tate Padung and JE Jumrik Ngomdir of the RWD at the Vijaynagar police station by the cousin brother of the girl.
The two engineers were monitoring the construction of the 157-km-long Miao-Vijaynagar (MV) PMGSY road project.
Confirming the incident, a senior police official of the district informed that a case (u/s 376/511/354/34 IPC, r/w Section 12 of the POCSO Act) has been registered against the alleged accused.
“We have taken the statement of the victim. The accused duo is on the run and we are trying to arrest them. Police have visited locations in Miao and Kharsang in this regard,” the official informed.
As per the FIR, the incident took place on 10 December, but the victim shared the information with a family member on 20 December. The reason behind the delay in filing the FIR was that the victim was in mental trauma. Also, most of her family members were out of station at the time of the incident, a family member informed.
“Both the engineers regularly visited the MV road as they are site engineers. During their visit, they usually stayed in the villages. On the 10th, they were staying in a Yobin village. This is when the incident allegedly took place,” said an official of Changlang district.
The MV road is one of the most prestigious road projects in the state. In September this year, Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein had set the month of October as the deadline to complete the construction of this strategic road, so that it is ready to be inaugurated by November 2022.
However, not only has the construction agency missed the deadline, the work is also reportedly progressing at a snail’s pace.
Chief Minister Pema Khandu had recently announced that he would conduct a cabinet meeting in Vijaynagar in the New Year.
