Minor’s rape: NCW seeks report from police
Tuesday, 30/07/2013
http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=76632&boxid=63732&uid=&dat=2013-07-31
New Delhi : The National Commission for Women today wrote to the Punjab Police seeking a report on the action taken in the case involving the rape of a minor girl in Ludhiana’s Jagraon area on May 28 this year.
The NCW will also visit Jagraon for an on-the-spot inquiry into the case. The key accused, Parminder Singh, sarpanch of Kothe Fatehdin village, has absconded. Strangely, the victim’s aunt is behind bars for abetting the crime.
The 16-year-old victim has since stopped going to school and remains confined to her house. Daughter of a rickshaw-puller, she lost her mother some time ago and was residing with her aunt and uncle at Kothe Fatehdin village. The NCW took up the case today after a public hearing organised by the All-India Agricultural Workers Union, the farmers’ support wing of the CPM, in Jagraon yesterday. The joint secretary of the union, Suneet Chopra, who attended the public hearing, petitioned the NCW and sought safety for the girl, considering the prime accused has not been arrested despite the fact that he possessed arms.
“The village has a 95 per cent Dalit population. But the sarpanch, elected as the SAD nominee, is a non-Dalit. The police is just not acting against him,” Chopra told The Tribune, pointing towards a pattern of Dalit violence across Punjab, especially after the panchayat elections. Leaders of the union met the victim yesterday. “She told us she is afraid that the accused may not be arrested. She fears for her life. We have recorded testimonies at the public hearing of how the Akalis are mobilising support for the accused,” Chopra said.
