India: Gang-rapes in Kandhamal & Government Apathy
November 08, 2012: The gang rape of two Christian girls in Kandhamal, both 13 years
old, and the murder of one of them subsequently during the Dussehara festival has
created not just panic in their villages, but a sense of disgust among activists for
the obnoxious attitude of police and the State Child Right Commission. It was possible
to meet the surviving victim because she is now with her parents who now work as casual
labour in Bhubaneswar.
The first one, a class VII student of Dadamaha, had
gone to witness a ‘yatra’ (play) at nearby Simanbadi village on Thursday night when
the youths sexually assaulted her. Sub-divisional police officer (SDPO), Baliguda,
Arjun Barik said the girl apparently attempted to raise an alarm, she was tied to
a tree and strangulated to death with her scarf. The body was found from the roadside
near Masanipada village 26 October. An autopsy was conducted on the body at Daringbadi
public health centre and a case was registered on the basis of an FIR lodged by her
father. There have been no arrests so far.
The second girl, a resident of
Ritangia village in Tiangia block, was also 13-year old, and a student of class VIII
in a local school. Her father is now a security guard in Bhubaneswar, and the girl
lives with relatives to continue her studies. On 27th October, she went to see the
Dussehara festivities, which attract a large crowd. On the way home, she was abducted
by six men, taken the nearby forest, stripped naked and raped by all six of them.
She collapsed. She regained consciousness after one of the rapists sprinkled water
on her face. One of them put a shirt on her and brought her close to the village.
She was found in the marketplace in the morning, and taken to her aunt’s house.
Initially
the local police did not help at all. She was brought to Bhubaneswar and taken to
the offices of the State Commission for Child Rights. This is where she was subjected
to mental torture by those designated to help children in distress. The chairperson
was rude and crude, said this was a police matter and that she could not do anything
even if she believed the story of the girl. In the all-woman Police Station set
up for registering crimes against women in an environment friendly to the victims,
the office on charge was absent. When Inspector Itti Das came to the office at last,
she too was rude, and even more crude. According to the woman social worker who had
accompanied the victim to the police station, the woman inspector said “you would
not be alive if you had been gang-raped”. The implication was that the girl was covering
up, had gone with the rapists of her own accord.
The police filed a report
at last, and referred the report to the Raikia police station in Kandhamal. The victim
was finally given a medical examination on 3rd November, a full week after her traumatic
experience. The medical report has not been given to the police yet. Activists who
are now counselling the girl, who was still in a state of shock when we met her, are
aghast at the manner in which the child right chief, a government appointee, and the
woman police officer behaved with the girl, who is no more than a child, small and
in distress. Surprisingly, the local and state media have chosen not to investigate
this story. The two gang rapes merited a passing couple of paragraphs.