FALTA:
The Falta rape victim's father, who fled from his home and took shelter in a hospital after receiving threat calls from the accused, returned home on Friday to find his house ransacked. He later learnt from his neighbours that his daughter's tormentors barged into his house on Thursday night and vandalized the furniture.
Jalal Mullick, the victim's father, said he was staying away from home on the advice of neighbours who feared that he could be physically harmed since the accused were roaming freely. "They were following me everywhere, threatening me and asking me to withdraw the case. So I am staying in the hospital that I find the only safe place in my district. Police are doing nothing, knowing well that I am being threatened by the accused, Mullick said.
"It is not true that police are not working. We sympathize with the victim. It is also not true that police failed to help the victim's family. It might be his personal problem for which he cannot enter his village. But I can assure that police are ready with any help they need," SP L N Meena said.
The victim, a schoolgirl, is now pregnant and her condition is not improving. "She still cannot stand straight and her head is reeling. It is hard for her to come to terms with the trauma. In sleep, she is crying aloud. When I told her that police were claiming that the accused had an affair with her, she broke into tears. She kept telling me that she had no relation with any of her tormentors. It was difficult to console her," said Mullick.
"She kept asking how she could go back to her school. She is keen to continue her studies. But I do not know how to bring her back into her normal life. I do not know how she could come to terms with the crime against her," Mullick added before he himself broke down.
Earlier, Falta police's refusal to register the complaint forced Mullick to move court. "It was not easy for me. I had to borrow money to file the case. But I did it because I could not tolerate the injustice done to my daughter," he had said.
The victim was abducted from the Sao-Palta bus stand by five locals on the evening of January 12. The teenager was locked up in a dark room and raped repeatedly over the next 10 days until she managed to escape. She staggered about in a daze and was luckily spotted by a police patrol. Because of the mental and physical trauma, it took her over a month to even talk about it with her family. Her father filed a complaint on February 17. "Police tried to wrap it up by lodging amissing diary. They refused to accept the gang-rape complaint even after my daughter narrated her ordeal. I faced the anger of the accused because I had dared to go to the police. I had complained about them earlier also because they were harassing my daughter but police did nothing," he said."My daughter has got pregnant. The accused are roaming free in the neighbourhood. They are making life miserable for other girls, but police are doing nothing. I cannot see my daughter suffer. She screams in her sleep."
