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A day after her 19-year-old daughter’s body was fished out of a well 7 km from her home in Karauli in eastern Rajasthan, the Dalit woman stood outside the mortuary of a government hospital, unable to come to terms with what had happened.
“There were two-three men, they came quietly, put a cloth on her mouth and bundled her inside a car. And now she’s dead, with a bullet in the chest and acid on her face after being gang-raped,” the woman alleged.
The brutal manner in which the girl was killed – it is suspected that acid was used to disfigure her face to prevent her identification – has shaken the family and the area residents. It has also become a political issue with the BJP, Congress, BSP and AAP stepping in – Assembly elections in the state are due later this year.
“My four children and I were at home (the night of July 11-12). All of us were asleep outside the house when the men came,” the girl’s mother told The Indian Express.
“I woke up when I heard some noise. I began shouting when I saw the men take away my daughter. But no one heard me, no neighbour came to help. The car’s engine was on, they pushed her inside and sped away,” she said.
In the FIR, she has stated that neighbours have coolers and fans in their homes, which is perhaps why they probably didn’t hear her shout. She doesn’t remember any face since it was night, she told The Indian Express.
The victim was a BA student, while her two sisters and a brother are all minors. Their father has been working as a labourer in Dubai for the last six years.
With her children too young to accompany her to the police station, the mother called a relative from Jaipur, who reached their village around 10 am Wednesday. “Around 10 of us searched for her for hours but couldn’t find her anywhere. In the evening, we approached the police station,” the relative said.
“The policemen told us to wait till next morning, saying she will return home… They refused to lodge an FIR and threatened us. So we had no option but to return home,” he said.
On Thursday morning, the girl’s mother got to know about a body being spotted in a well. It was fished out around noon, using a rope that was tied around the waist.
She said she informed her husband in Dubai, “but he won’t be able to come as he had come home on leave just three months ago”.
The local police registered a case of unnatural death under CrPC section 174. Prima facie, the police assumed the girl had died by drowning.
According to Pushpendra Gupta, Principal Medical Officer, a post-mortem was conducted at the Hindaun government hospital between 5 pm and 7 pm Thursday.
Alleging a cover up, BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Dr Kirodi Lal Meena reached the location and sat with the family on a dharna, demanding another post-mortem examination.
A second post-mortem was conducted sometime after 9.30 pm Thursday. While the first post-mortem was conducted by four doctors from Hindaun government hospital, a different team was constituted for the second post-mortem on orders of the District Collector, and all three doctors came from the district headquarters in Karauli.
Sitting with the family, former Hindaun City MLA Rajkumari Jatav of the BJP claimed, “Since elections are due in a few months and the Assembly session is on, the Congress government wanted to suppress the case. If we hadn’t raised the issue, the administration would have settled the case with the family and the last rites would have been conducted too.”
Speaking on the first post-mortem, PMO Gupta said, “There was a firearm injury in the chest, face and hands were burnt, as if from acid, and the body was checked for rape. While firearm injury is confirmed – a bullet was retrieved from the body – the other two can be confirmed only after the preserved samples have been analysed.”
He said the second post-mortem was videographed after the family insisted. Although the family claimed that several details were not revealed in the post-mortem, Gupta said that they did confirm to the family about a bullet being retrieved from the girl’s body, the acid attack and the possibility of rape after the first post-mortem itself.
Shortly after midnight, the girl’s mother gave a written complaint to the police and an FIR was lodged under IPC sections 302 (murder), 376D (gang-rape), 326A (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by use of acid), 363 (kidnapping) and 366 (kidnapping or abducting a woman to compel her marriage or to cause her defilement) against unknown accused.
On Friday afternoon, members of the BJP, Congress, BSP and AAP crowded the hospital where the girl’s body was kept.
Under one tent, BSP leaders awaited the arrival of Rajya Sabha MP Ramji Gautam; under another tent, AAP leaders chanted slogans against the Ashok Gehlot government. The family members were surrounded by BJP workers under a third roof outside the hospital building but within the premises.
As BSP leaders tried to take the family away, the BJP members resisted, stating that whoever wanted to meet the family should come over instead.
A BSP leader tried to convince the family, telling them it’s “community before village.” But this too was resisted by those around the family, including BJP workers.
After attempts to bring the family to the BSP tent failed, MP Ramji Gautam arrived and sat next to the girl’s mother. BSP state president Bhagwan Singh Baba got into an argument with some local residents after he told them they were not doing enough for the family. Enraged, the residents and BJP workers forced Bhagwan and Ramji Gautam to leave barely a minute after they sat next to the woman.
Earlier, the BJP also constituted a three-member fact-finding team to investigate and submit a report, with the members being Rajsamand Lok sabha MP Diya Kumari, Bharatpur Lok Sabha MP Ranjeeta Koli and former chief of Rajasthan State Commission for Women Suman Sharma, who met the family and then DGP Umesh Misra.
Until Friday evening, the stalemate continued between the administration and the family which is now demanding the arrest of the culprits, monetary compensation, job to a relative, and action against the policemen who allegedly threatened them when they went to lodge an FIR.
Karauli Superintendent of Police Mamta Gupta said “discussions with the family are still on”. On the rape allegations, she said the FSL report is awaited. On the family’s allegation that they were threatened by policemen when they went to lodge an FIR, she said, “We will get it investigated and take action if something like this is found.”
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