A Rape Victim’s Father Died In Custody And The MLA Behind It Is Still Free – Are You Enraged?

Let’s start with a basic question – why do we have elections? To choose our representatives who will raise the issues of the common man and work for the greater good, or to select people who can be described as beasts, at best, and will exploit the lives of those who do not have the same power and money as they do? Considering what’s happening in Uttar Pradesh lately, I’m more inclined to believe it’s the latter.

Image: Scroll

For a quick recap, I’ll start from the beginning. In June 2017, almost a year ago, a 16-year-old girl said that she was raped BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar at his house when she went to seek his help in getting a job. Since it is a case of an assault of a minor, the case falls under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. Over the course of the next few days, she was threatened, went missing and was prevented from naming the BJP MLA in her police complaint. Cut to 3rd April 2018, The girl’s father, who was in Unnao for the hearing, was assaulted by Atul Singh, brother of the main accused, and his aides. Is your mind blown yet? No? Well, there’s more.

Shockingly, the police took into custody the victim’s father who had been beaten mercilessly, and lodged a case under Section 25 (illegal possession of firearm) against him instead of the assaulters. The father also tried to file a complaint against the MLA’s brother but no action was taken. On 8th April, the girl tried to self-immolate outside Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath’s house in Lucknow demanding an FIR against the MLA, but was stopped. 

The worst happened on 9th April, 2018. The girl’s father passed away at the district hospital hours after he was shifted from the district jail. The post-mortem report concluded that the victim’s father died because of ‘shock and septicemia’. The report also listed multiple abrasions near abdomen, buttocks, thighs, above and below knee joints and arms and blood poisoning due to colon perforation. The thing is, perforation of the colon can be caused by a number of diseases but, notably, it can be caused by blunt trauma to the abdomen or a knife or gunshot wound. So which one is it? The only silver lining in this thing is that the MLA’s brother and his accomplices have been finally arrested.

There is only deafening silence from the CM, Yogi Adityanath’s office. Is it a failure on the deliverance of promises that included absolute security for the population of the state? If you take a minute out to check his official Twitter account, you will find, to no surprise that while he’s been actively tweeting about why you should do yoga with PM Modi, there is no mention of the case at all. But, if you really think about it, you can’t blame the CM since he’s busy looking for funds for a Lord Ram statue in Ayodhya to promote ‘social development’. 

Even when we are outraged at the atrocities, our representatives are sitting, rather comfortably so, at their houses. It’s not their problem – because they aren’t us, are they? They are the men with power, who run the state and eventually the nation. Who was the victim? A girl from the lower strata of the society. What right did she have to exist or demand justice in a world for the goons and run by the goons? Ultimately, money is power and they have enough money to buy anybody’s silence – from the police to the media to anybody they put their finger on. Cue some more sexist and misogynist comments from the BJP party, not to forget victim-blaming.

Ironically enough, the taxpayer’s money is being used to bury the said taxpayers. This is justice for putting in power criminals and rapists. I guess we should’ve known better.

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