Jind:
The horror of rape continues unabated in Haryana. A 16-year-old Dalit girl committed suicide on Saturday after she was allegedly gangraped in the Sachcha Kheda village in Haryana's Jind district. The incident is the tenth case of rape in the state in less than a month.
According to the police, the victim was forcibly dragged by one of her neighbours, Pradeep, into his house and later raped by him along with another man, Naveen. Pradeep belongs to the same community as the victim. Shocked by the incident, the girl went to her house and set herself on fire. She suffered 90 per cent burn injuries.
She later succumbed to her injuries at a government hospital in Rohtak. But she did manage to record her statement before a magistrate, which helped the police in registering a First Information Report (FIR) in the case. According to her statement, Pradeep's sister-in-law
kept guard outside his house while he raped her. Another man, Sanjeev, also came inside the room and bolted the door, but did not rape her, she had said.
The cops have arrested the main accused, Pradeep, his accomplice Naveen and Sanjeev. The trio will be produced in a court tomorrow. Pradeep's sister-in-law, meanwhile, has been sent to judicial custody. The fifth accused, identified as Manoj - a Haryana police constable from Hisar, has also been arrested.
The incident is the latest in a string of cases of crimes against Dalit women in Haryana. Last month, a teenage Dalit girl was allegedly raped by a group of 12 men in Hisar. The accused also filmed the incident on a cellphone and circulated the MMS. Unable to cope with the situation, the girl's father killed himself. For five days, his body was at the mortuary of a local hospital, while the villagers protested against police inaction for almost a month. The victim and her mother refused to take his body from the morgue, saying they will claim it only when they get justice. This finally forced the police to take action.
But the fact that it took his death to propel the police into registering a case of rape is a grim reflection of the condition of Dalits in the state.
On October 4, a newly-married woman registered a complaint saying she was allegedly abducted and gangraped by four men at Banwasa village under Gohana sub-division in Haryana's Sonipat district, 200 km from Chandigarh.
In another incident, a 13-year-old girl was allegedly raped by her 45-year-old neighbour in Rohtak, about 70 km from Delhi on Wednesday evening.
In the same area, a minor, mentally-challenged Dalit girl was allegedly raped last Monday. The 15-year-old victim was allegedly lured by three women relatives in Kachchi Garhi Mohalla colony of Rohtak and then raped by a man in an abandoned house.
Last week, a teenaged girl was gang-raped by four men in Gohana town in Haryana's Sonipat district.
(With inputs from PTI)