The Uttar Pradesh Police has filed an FIR against two men accused of raping a woman in Aligarh district during the Kanwar Yatra, an annual pilgrimage undertaken by devotees of Lord Shiva.

Aligarh SSP Muniraj G on Saturday said the woman couldn’t keep up with her husband while carrying Kanwar in Harduaganj. Two men known to her offered to drop her home on their bike but took her elsewhere and raped her, he said.

The police said two teams have been formed to nab the accused.

“One team went to Agra and another Firozabad. Strict action will be taken against the accused,” the SSP added.

थाना हरदुआगंज क्षेत्र से सम्बन्धित घटना में अभियोग पंजीकृत है,अभियुक्त पूर्व से पीड़िता के परिचित है, #SPRA के नेतृत्व में अभि0 की गिर0 हेतु 02 टीमें गठित कर फिरोजाबाद व आगरा में सम्भावित स्थानों पर दबिश दी जा रही है। के सम्बन्ध में @sspaligarh श्री मुनिराज जी द्वारा दी गई #बाइट pic.twitter.com/SdknfAn6Px

— ALIGARH POLICE (@aligarhpolice) March 13, 2021

During the Kanwar Yatra, devotees walk for hundreds of miles carrying water from the Ganges as offering to their local Shiva shrines.

In March, a large number of devotees from western Uttar Pradesh had turned up at Haridwar as many of them had to give the Kanwar Yatra a miss due to the pandemic last year.

Earlier this month, the Uttar Pradesh Assembly witnessed an uproarious scenes over the alleged rape and murder of a 16-year-old Dalit girl in Aligarh district.

Alleging that girls, especially belonging to the Dalit community, were facing atrocities in the state, BSP Legislature Party Leader Lalji Verma demanded a debate over the issue. Giving reply on behalf of the government, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna said an FIR had been registered in the case and five teams have been formed to track down the culprit.

Unsatisfied with the reply, BSP members walked out of the House alleging women were not safe in the state and action was not being taken against culprits.

Uttar Pradesh reported the highest number of crimes against women (59,853), accounting for 14.7 per cent of such cases across the country, according to the annual National Crime Record Bureau’s “Crime in India” 2019 report. UP also had the highest number of crimes against girl children under the POCSO Act with 7,444 cases.