Lakhimpur Kheri teen murder: Traumatised family fights all odds

Lakhimpur Kheri (Uttar Pradesh): An illiterate mother - who says she has been coerced, threatened, offered bribe - will not stop fighting for justice for her dead child. She found her missing 14-year-old daughter Sonam's body tied to a tree at an Uttar Pradesh police station and she has refused to accept two autopsy reports that say there was no rape. The vaginal swab of the murdered teen has now been sent for further tests.

A team of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) met the family in Lakhimpur Kheri late last night. Tarranum Ali's focused efforts to get justice and the national outrage over the murder and alleged rape of the teen have seen the Mayawati government crack the whip. Four cops have been arrested on charges of tampering with evidence, the Lakhimpur Kheri Superintendent of Police, DK Rai, has been transferred. Three doctors who conducted the first autopsy have been suspended.

When the first post mortem threw no light on the girl's death except to say that she had committed suicide, the UP government, under huge pressure, intervened and a second autopsy was ordered and conducted yesterday. It confirmed murder, though not rape. She was strangled and died of asyphxia, the report said.

Want justice, not money: Mother

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The child's parents still insist she was raped at the Nighaasan police station on Friday morning. "If the rape happened with the rich, would they have let go so easily? Just because I am poor, should I let it go? I want justice, stringent punishment for the culprits. I don't want money, I want death punishment for them," Tarranum said.

Tarranum and her husband Intezam Ali said their daughter had ventured out with their cattle for grazing on Friday morning. When she didn't return, they went looking for her and found her propped up next to a tree. Three policemen who insisted she had committed suicide advised them to "take the body and run away."  

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Tarranum has alleged that the family has been threatened and has even been offered Rs 5 lakh to settle with the police station. The grieving mother has a counter offer: "The police station is offering us Rs 5 lakh to strike an understanding. If we pay them Rs 10 lakh, will they give their child to us?"

On Monday, the victim's parents watched as policemen used an axe to break open the door to the room where the teen was allegedly raped and killed. Blood was scraped off the floor and sent to a forensic lab.

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Outrage, calls for justice
 
The National Commission for Women (NCW) has sent a notice to the UP government. "The NCW wants swift inquiry so that no evidence gets left out," said chairperson Yasmeen Abrar. The NCW may send a team to conduct its own inquiry after it gets a report from the UP government.

Social activists are outraged. Women's activist Madhu Kishwar said, "The biggest threat to the people of India is from the police of India... I think we have the most lawless and criminalized police system in the world."

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Meenakshi Lekhi, human rights lawyer, said, "The victim is just a symbol of all that is wrong with the police administration - non-listing of cases, non-investigations, no productivity basically. The police system generally is not people friendly, it is corrupt and works on political dictates, mismanaged and controlled by few and not a service agency as it should be."

Opposition attacks, BSP defensive
 
And the opposition is up in arms. "In UP thousands of women face rape, several have been found dead, but still our CM has not spoken on the law and order situation even once," said the Congress' Rita Joshi.

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Samajwadi Party General Secretary Azam Khan said demanded a CBI probe. "This is a cover-up by the police, the case is botched up", he said.

The ruling BSP is on the defensive. It issued a statement condemning the NHRC and NCW for defaming the state government. "NHRC and NCW are trying to malign the state Govt. They are behaving like a political opposition. They are hand in glove with the opposition. Krishna Tirath should concentrate on atrocities on women in the national capital than in UP," read the statement.