By Waquar Hasan, IndiaTomorrow.net,
New Delhi, 24 Nov 2015: The mother of three kids was molested but she survived three gang-rape attempts in six months in Howrah district of West Bengal. When her jute mill labor-husband filed complaints and FIR with police against the culprits, some of whom are alleged to be relatives of union leader of the mill, he was sacked from the factory and was forced to flee. Since early September, the family of five has been holding sit-in at Jantar Mantar in Delhi with the hope some will hear them and they will get justice someday.
The first incident took place in February this year. Around 10 in the night of 1st February, Kiran Devi, around 30, was with her three kids at the quarter as her husband Dilip Kumar Sah had gone to the mill on night shift. “All of a sudden, Santosh Giri and Mukesh Singh broke into the quarter and stuffed cloth in my wife’s mouth. With one hand on her mouth, both persons kicked and slapped my wife and tore down her clothes. They pinned her down and tried to gang-rape her,” Sah who originally belongs to Balia district in Uttar Pradesh says in his two-page letter to Prime Minister.
Recalling the incident, Kiran also says: “They barged into my house, put their hands on my mouth and nose and forced themselves upon me. They also tore down my blouse. I pleaded to go to toilet and fled from the room. But they caught me outside and beat me up as neighbors had gathered.”
The same night husband-wife went to the local police station to lodge FIR but the police refused, claims Sah. Next morning, as the news spread and media persons intervened, the police lodged FIR.
However, on 23rd April also, some of the culprits attacked her and brutally beat her. They again unsuccessfully tried to physically assault her.
Following the police complaint, the accused threatened him of dire consequences if he didn’t withdraw the case. They also threatened to kill them and abduct their sons.
In August also, his wife was attacked.
“On 16th Aug when I went to the mill for work, they came to my home and disrobed my wife and beat her out of the flat and threatened us to leave the place otherwise we would be killed on 17th Aug. On 17th Aug, I went to the mill but they pushed me out and didn’t allow me to work. No one helped us. They didn’t even treat my injured wife. As we got frightened, we fled the place and left for my in-law’s at Darbhanga in Bihar. There we got my wife treated,” said Sah talking to IndiaTomorrow.net.
“We came to Delhi on 9th Sep. We were just roaming around when one noble man guided us to the Jantar Mantar. We are here now for three months.”
In West Bengal, the family had approached women commission and human rights commission but could not get much help.
In Delhi, they have written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 11 Sep, detailing about the atrocities committed on them.
“We are starving. We have three young children – one is aged 2, other 4 and one is five and half years old. We are facing cold. None has come to hear us,” said Sah sitting on a footpath along with his family, just one kilometer from the Parliament House.
“We will continue our sit-in here unless action is taken against the accused and my job is restored,” said Sah.
