By Mumtaz Alam, India Tomorrow,
New Delhi, 12 Jan 2014: For last 11 months, she has been living at Rajasthan House in Delhi. She was gang-raped and brutally assaulted in Sikar district of Rajasthan in August 2012. She is just 12, but has since undergone 19 surgeries – 17 in Rajasthan and 2 in Delhi. Her 20th surgery was scheduled for 03 Jan at All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) but doctors found her unfit for the surgery. She is a Nirbhaya who wants to live to ensure punishment for her attackers but she is not the Nirbhaya of 16th Dec gang-rape incident for whose justice the entire country had risen up. Not a single protest demonstration has been held in Delhi for this Nirbhaya of Sikar.
It was 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. It was the Eid day when children of her age go out for fun and picnic. A car stopped near them. The men inside the car pulled her inside and sped away. Next day noon, she was found in another locality profusely bleeding. 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 AIIMS in Feb 2013.
Initially the Sikar police 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 granted bail. Two have not yet been arrested. The systemic injustice is evident from the fact that more than one and half years after the incident, none of the culprits have been presented before her for identity parade.
The minor’s family hails from Darbhanga in Bihar and had moved to Sikar 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.
Many civil rights groups and NGOs of Rajasthan were raising her issue when Delhi was witnessing the historic protest demonstrations against the 16 Dec gang-rape incident. Fearing the repeat of the Delhi protests in Jaipur, the then Congress government of Rajasthan shifted her with mother and a sister to Delhi and started funding of her treatment.
Mohammad Salim Engineer, National Secretary, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind has been raising the issue in Rajasthan. He has met the victim and her family thrice since she was shifted to Rajasthan House in Delhi.
Mr. Salim again visited the victim and her family on Saturday (11 Jan). He thinks the state has been deliberately delaying justice for her.
“No identity parade has been conducted so far. This is a clear evidence that the government is delaying trial and does not want to punish the culprits,” said Mr. Salim while talking to India Tomorrow.
He said the victim was shifted to Delhi only because the issue was bringing disrepute to the state government.
“The culprits seem to be mighty people under whose pressure the government shifted her to Delhi. She is living in a sort of confinement at Rajasthan House for last 9 months as she and her family are not allowed to talk to media and others,” said Mr. Salim.
He informed that Jamaat-e-Islami Hind has financially supported the family and plans to provide them legal support also. He said he would talk to the new government of Rajasthan to take the issue seriously and ensure justice to the minor.
“I will talk to the Rajasthan government in this regard. I will urge the government to ensure justice to the victim and punishment to the culprits,” Mr. Salim said.
Meanwhile, eminent woman activist Kavita Krishnan who successfully led the 16 Dec gang-rape protest in Delhi has said she would also take up the case of Sikar victim. She said he would meet the victim and her family and would surely raise their issue.
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