By India Tomorrow Staff Reporter,
New Delhi / Sikar (Rajasthan), 01 June 2014: The 12-year-old gang-rape victim of Rajasthan’s Sikar district who was shifted to Rajasthan House in New Delhi in February 2013, was on Wednesday taken back to Sikar along with her family by the police and dropped at their relative’s house around 2 AM Thursday (29 May). As the accused and their families also reside in the neighbourhood, the civil society has demanded protection to the victim and her family.
The brutal incident of gang-rape happened on 20 August 2012 when she, youngest of six sisters, was returning home along with her three sisters and a neighbour after watching a movie in a cinema hall in Sikar. A car stopped near them. The men sitting in the car pulled her inside and sped away. Next day noon, she was found profusely bleeding in another locality. As her condition was very critical, she was rushed to a government hospital in Sikar and later she was referred to Jaipur. She underwent 17 surgeries at Jaipur’s J.K. Lone hospital from where she was referred to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi in February 2013. She underwent three more surgeries at AIIMS. The state government of Rajasthan arranged the stay of the victim and her family at Rajasthan House where they had since been living.
Initially the Sikar police had refused to file an FIR but a case was registered only after local people demonstrated outside the police station. Six culprits were named in the FIR but only four were arrested – two of them were later granted bail. Two others have not yet been arrested. Trial against the two accused is going on in a local court of Sikar.
The victim hails from Darbhanga district in Bihar and had moved to Sikar along with her family just a month before the incident. The sisters were working as domestic helps to earn livelihood and were living with their 65-year-old widowed mother.
A group of community leaders led by Mohammad Salim Engineer, Secretary of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, visited the victim on 29 May and also met Sikar Superintendent of Police demanding proper security and shelter for the victim and her family.
(Mohammad Salim Engineer (extreme right) along with other delegation members meets concerned police offcials in Sikar on 29 May 2014)
“We met with SP of Sikar and demanded proper security and shelter for the victim and her family. The SP assured us that he will take all necessary steps in this regard,” Salim Engineer told India Tomorrow.
Besides Mr. Salim, the delegation had state JIH secretary Dr. Mohammad Iqbal Siddiqui, zonal head Babu Bhai, Delhi-based social activist Inamur Rahman and others.
The community leaders are also planning to meet Rajasthan’s Social Justice & Empowerment Minister Arun Chaturvedi and Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje to demand proper rehabilitation and full justice to the victim.
