By Hamza Khan
A day after her 19-year-old daughter’s body was fished out of a well 7 km from her home in Karauli in eastern Rajasthan, the Dalit woman stood outside the mortuary of a government hospital, unable to come to terms with what had happened.
“There were two-three men, they came quietly, put a cloth on her mouth and bundled her inside a car. And now she’s dead, with a bullet in the chest and acid on her face after being gang-raped,” the woman alleged.
The brutal manner in which the girl was killed – it is suspected that acid was used to disfigure her face to prevent her identification – has shaken the family and the area residents. It has also become a political issue with the BJP, Congress, BSP and AAP stepping in – Assembly elections in the state are due later this year.
“My four children and I were at home (the night of July 11-12). All of us were asleep outside the house when the men came,” the girl’s mother told The Indian Express.
“I woke up when I heard some noise. I began shouting when I saw the men take away my daughter. But no one heard me, no neighbour came to help. The car’s engine was on, they pushed her inside and sped away,” she said.
In the FIR, she has stated that neighbours have coolers and fans in their homes, which is perhaps why they probably didn’t hear her shout. She doesn’t remember any face since it was night, she told The Indian Express.
The victim was a BA student, while her two sisters and a brother are all minors. Their father has been working as a labourer in Dubai for the last six years…
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com. Read the full story here