Dalit gangrape victim consumes poison over police ‘inaction’

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 1

A Dalit gang rape victim from Raghuana village in Sirsa district consumed some poisonous substance late last night after the police allegedly did take any action on her complaint for over a month.

The 30-year-old victim’s husband alleged that the family was being threatened by her persecutors, who roamed freely in the village, for a compromise.

He said he noticed his wife lying unconscious when he returned from his fields late last night and rushed her to a private hospital.

For the past over a month, they had been running from pillar to post for the arrest of the accused, but the police were doing nothing and rather they were being pressurised for compromise, he said.

The woman was allegedly raped by two youths, both cousins, on August 11 when she had gone to fields to fetch green grass for cattle. Then, another youth joined them and the three raped her by keeping her hostage in the fields till the night.

Frightened, the woman did not inform the matter to her husband and went to her parent’s place in Fatta village of Punjab and narrated the incident to her mother. When her husband went to bring her back on August 25, the woman’s mother informed him about the incident.

On August 27, the two went to the Sirsa SP office and an FIR was registered against the accused on August 29 under Sections 376-D of the IPC and the SCs and STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

“The accused are roaming freely and terrorising us and the police are hand in glove with them,” he alleged.

Seema Rani, SHO of the Mahila Police Station, said the case was being investigated by DSP (Headquarters) Vijay Kakkar.

Kakkar denied the allegations that the police had connived with them.

Meanwhile, a police spokesperson said that the accused, Jaskaran and Jagga Singh, both residents of Raghuana, were arrested late in the evening.