Himachal Pradesh lost its credibility of once known as a safe place after this heinous crime.
The girl took the usual route from school to home every day accompanied by her younger brother. Unfortunately, that day her brother stayed back in school for an event while she headed home alone through the forest. A gang of people, few with familiar faces, offered her lift in a car they were driving. Her dead body was found on 6th July from Halila forest of Mahasu. The post mortem report confirmed rape and death by strangulation, along with deep injuries all over her face and body.
So common have rapes become in our country that our authorities fail to take it seriously. But hey, did anybody check on her clothes? Well, so this innocent girl deserved to die, for she provoked those drunken rapists in her knee length skirt? Oh, why did she cross that path alone without being accompanied by her brother? Girls are not supposed to venture out alone you see. Nope, men are not to be blamed, as they were under the influence of alcohol. Minor crimes like these happen in a country of billions.
Damn!
Such are the damned reactions of retard minds when a girl is raped and murdered. So cheap is a woman’s life in this society that “dignified” morals outweigh the gravity of crime. As we hang our heads in shame once again, we see how little has been done for women safety, exposing them to crime even in broad day light. A country that worships goddesses as a symbol of power and knowledge has nothing for the women living here. Not even a strict law against rape! Had stringent law reforms been made post the infamous Nirbhaya rape in December 2012, crimes would have minimized, if not ceased. We don’t see any difference since then even when the whole country went on a rampage protesting against Nirbhaya case demanding justice for her. On the hind side, there has been an upsurge in the number of rape cases from 706 in 2012 to 2199 in 2016 in Delhi alone.
The devastated father said how he had always warned her about wild animals, especially bears on the way and she would say, ‘Relax, papa, no one can harm me’.
“I wish I had warned her about men who are worse than beasts,” he said helplessly.
It would not be wrong to say we failed as a country. We failed as a society that could not teach men the values of respect and dignity of women. To the world we portray ourselves as regressive mind sets that feel sorry when rape happens and move on, but not build a culture to prevent the next. We feel okay to coach women on how to dress, stay indoors, not wear makeup, not talk on mobile phones, et al but not train men to treat women with respect.
Any woman, irrespective her age, is so vulnerable in our society that it feels a crime to be born as a woman. Be it the case of two year old Baby Falak, a victim of child trafficking brought to AIIMS trauma centre with fractured skull and bite marks all over her body (2015), or the 11 month baby who was raped for nearly two hours in Delhi’s Vikaspuri (2016) or the gang rape of 4 women travelling with family member to Bulandshahar from Noida (2017). Where has humanity gone?
As a country, we see the authorities make an issue out of every case, play political blame games, demand resignations from ministers, but what steps do they take to prevent such cases in future? How many more rapes will it take for the authorities to learn? A shudder passed through my body when I heard of this case. My eyes brimmed up as I was writing this, thinking what pain the girl must have gone through. She was not my relative or friend, yet I feel the pain and anger. Had it been a high profile case, would authorities leave any stone un-turned to nab the criminals and punish them? Which means we might have to wait for another rape, from a politician’s family may be, for a reform in law. (God forbade).
Under immense public pressure, the police arrested 6 suspects claiming to solve the case. Suspecting loopholes in police theory and custodial death of one of the accused, the case has been handed over to CBI for further investigation. More public outrage happened, when one of the culprits was murdered in police custody. Himachal High Court has directed CBI to file a fresh case to the case and custodial death of the suspect.
Meanwhile, massive support has poured in for the aggrieved family, setting up financial support and demanding justice for the deceased girl. May her soul rest in peace and may the country wake up soon.