A 25-year-old tribal girl was allegedly raped by the helper of an air-conditioned luxury bus in which she was travelling, police today said. The accused identified as Susanta Hembram has been arrested for allegedly raping the tribal girl, resident of Mayurbhanj district of Odisha, in the moving bus on Sunday night when other passengers were fast asleep, they said.
In her complaint, the victim alleged that Hembram raped her in the rear seat of the private bus en route Jagatpur near Cuttack, between 3 to 3.30 am when there were only few passengers and all of them were asleep, City DCP S Praveen Kumar said.
Hembram is believed to be an acquaintance of the victim,who works as a domestic help in Jagatpur, on the outskirts of Cuttack city. The incident came to light when the girl was rescued by some people at Gatiroutpatna, about 5 km from Cuttack on Cuttack-Jagatsinghpur road yesterday.
The Mahila police station of the city after registering a case sent both the accused and the victim for medical examination on the day. A police scientific team is also assisting the city police in investigating the case.
The State Transport Commissioner Surendra Kumar informed that the permit of the passenger bus in which the crime was committed has been cancelled. “It is one of the primary duties of the bus staff to ensure that the passengers boarding the buses travel safely and reach their destinations unharmed,” Kumar said. Meanwhile, the Private Bus Owners’ Association condemning the incident has demanded that stringent punishment should be given to the bus helper and urged the bus owners to ensure that the credentials of the persons are verified properly before they are recruited to perform duties in the buses plying at night.
New Delhi: A 16-year-old girl committed suicide by hanging in a police station in Delhi on Saturday evening, police said. “The girl, a native of Bangladesh, who works as a domestic help in south Delhi, had gone missing from her home in Vasant Kunj on Friday. A passerby spotted her near Rithala Metro station on Saturday in north Delhi and took her to Vijay Vihar police station,” said a police officer.
Police informed her parents and asked the girl to stay in the ladies changing room, where she hung herself from a ceiling with her stole. A police personnel spotted her body around 5 pm.
Police said she was depressed as her parents were pressing her to marry against her wishes.
“On Friday, she left her house around 11 am without telling her parents without properly telling them where she was going. When she did not come back, after an hour they started searching and later informed police in the evening,” the officer said.
A case of kidnapping was registered at Vasant Kunj north police station, the officer added.
While West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjeeherself maintains a dismissive silence on the issues of women’s safety plaguing the state and its capital Kolkata, she probably likes people of her state to follow her example and not fret too much about young girls getting raped and killed.
In what is indicative of a similar sentiment, the Kolkata Police today picked up and detained a group of peaceful protesters who had turned up in front of the chief minister’s south Kolkata home to seek assurance of action and also submit a memorandum of demands.
Anuradha Kapoor, who is associated with the civil rights group Maitree, spoke to Firstpostabout her ordeal. She, along with twelve of her colleagues, were picked up by the Kolkata Police from Kalighat and taken to the police headquarters at Lalbazar.
Mamata Banerjee. Agencies.
According to Kapoor, she and her colleagues turned up in front of Mamata Banerjee‘s house in Kalighat, Kolkata seeking an appointment with her. They were stopped at the police barricade in front of the chief minister’s house at around 7.45 am today. They sought an appointment with the CM but were refused one.
“The police told us that we can’t meet her since there are so many of us. So we said that the rest of us can wait outside while three or four people can go and meet her,” Kapoor said.
However, the police still refused to let them in and the protesters too refused to budge.
“We had placards with us and we were singing songs. The police asked us to make way for vehicles, we did that too. Suddenly, the officer-in-charge of the Kalighat Police station started hollering at the women police constables on duty and asked them to make us leave. In no time, two police vans came and cops started dragging us and herding us into the vans. They rounded some of us up. Then they followed the rest in our group who had already left the spot and were several hundred metres away. They were picked up too and brought to the Lalbazar station,” says Kapoor.
There were 40 activists, of which twelve were picked up and detained at the police headquarters. Till this report was filed, the activists were detained at the Lalbazar police station and were given no information about the charges against them.
“The state of women’s security in terrible. It has been like that for a long time now and we elected a new government for a reason. However, they are in complete denial of the situation and when you protest, this is what you get. We had sought an appointment with the CM at the Writers’ Buildings prior to this. She asked a deputy to inform us that the demands can be forwarded to the police chief and she didn’t meet us,” said Kapoor.
A 20-year-girl was gangraped and killed last Friday and a twelve-year-old suffered the same fate within four days of the other incident. Protests have broken out across the state following that.
An impatient administration that tries to stifle the voice of protests, unmasks itself much more than critics can possibly do. This morning, members of Maitree, a Kolkata based network of women’s group, assembled peacefully outside Mamta Banerjees residence asking for an appointment to submit a letter of protest to the Chief Minister against the two recent cases of gang rape and murder. They had earlier tried to hand over the same at the Writers building on Monday but she had refused to meet the delegation. The grotesque rape,murder and violence against two students in Barasat and Krishnaganj, Nadia, in the last few days is an ampleindication of the appaling law and order sitution in the state and the administration’s dismal failure to ensure safety and security of women. The members of Maitree wanted to draw the Chief Minister’s personal attentionto this in a bid to ensure her personal intervention in this issue.
Instead of receiving their protest letter, the police arrested 13 women instantly. Anuradha Kapoor, Swapna, Kakali Bhattacharya, Anchita Ghatak, Shyamali Das, Ratnaboli Roy Sharmishtha Dutta Gupta, Shreya Sanghari, Madhura Chakraborty, Shreya Chakraborty, Sudeshna Basu, & Aditi Basu were whisked away to Lalbazar where they are currently detained at the Labazar central lock up. Abir Niyogy who was earlier taken away to Kalighatpolice station and has been currently transfered to Labazar central lock.
NTUI strongly condems this arrest by the police and demands an immediate and unconditional release of the members of Maitree. We strongly uphold the peoples’ right to dissent and protest. We also call upon theGovernment, judiciary and law enforcing agencies for an immediate arrest of culprits, a proper investigation and a fair and unbiased trial which would enable victims and their families in accessing justice and lead culprits towards due punishment; otherwise this wave of brutality against women would remain endless and unabated.
Jharkhand: No arrest yet after murder and gang rape of two school girls, people launch agitation, block highway
Bhaskar News | May 31, 2013,
Deoghar: These agitating people are demanding arrest of those responsible for the rape and murder to two girl students in the police-lines. They are demanding that postmortem report should be made public, and the Station House Officer of Jasidihpolice station should be suspended. Girls went missing near the area on last Saturday, and their bodies were found near a pond behind police line on Monday.
The mob managed to close most of the shops in the local market. Some people even pelted stones at a public transport bus. Jasidih Deoghar and Rohini road remained closed for nearly eight hours.
SDM, and CO of the area reached the spot to pacify the people, but no one was willing to hear them.
People had got agitated earlier also on Monday when dead bodies were found. That time police managed to calm down people after giving an assurance to arrest the culprits within 24-hours. But when police failed to live up to the promise, people decided to hit the road again.
CPI (M) leader Birinda Karat met the family members of the victims. She also met agitating people and extended her support to them. She threatened to launch agitation if culprits were not arrested immediately. She claimed that this case is as tragic as Delhi gang rape in which a medical student died after being gang raped in a moving bus.
Not just AFSPA, Delhi Police Adds to the Woes of the Northeast Community in the Capital
Neha Dixit, June 1, 2013
It takes over three days and a minister’s intervention to file a FIR in Reingamphi’s death case. Protests continue
Forget justice, Reingamphi’s death shows how even basic investigation proceedings are elusive in this country. Not just her family and the northeast community had to protest for three days to get a FIR registered but also the post mortem report has been brazenly botched up.
On May 29, she was found dead in her rented apartment in Chirag Delhi. She had multiple injuries; her nose was bitten off, her eyelids scratched, eyes bleeding and a big cut on her leg. There was a cell phone in her hand.
Bosco, her cousin says, “Even when the landlord knew our contact details, he did not inform us and broke open the door to her room with the help of the police. We strongly suspect tampering of evidence.” Bosco also informs that they were forced by the SHO to write down ‘death under suspicious circumstances’ instead of ‘suspected murder and sexual assault’ in their complaint to the police.
Binalakshmi, founder of Manipur Women Gun Survivor’s Network says, “The interim post mortem report came to us only last night. It mentions that the body had no blood stains. This is a blatant lie as evident in the pictures taken when her body was found the day before.”
The police, after a lot of protest, agreed to provide the FIR number to the family last night at 8 o’clock. After a lot of insistence they were finally handed over the FIR copy. The case was registered under section 306, which denotes ‘abetment to suicide’. It is also important to note that the reason on death in the interim post mortem report is mentioned as ‘pending’ and in spite of that the case has been registered under section 306.
Moreover, the family members informed the SHO Vijay Pal on several occasions that Reingamphi was continuously stalked by her landlord’s brother-in-law. She had even complained to her landlord on several occasions about the sexual innuendos in his brother in law’s conversations with her. He has not yet been taken into custody for interrogation.
Kiran Walia, MLA of Malviya Nagar and also the Minister of Health, Women and Child Welfare, Delhi met the protestors today outside the Malviya Nagar police station. “How can assault be ruled out in the investigation?” she said. She informed the crowd that the demand to transfer the case from the Malviya Nagar police station to the Special Crime branch has been conveyed to Delhi police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar and he has replied in the affirmative.
The travesty of justice is evident in the fact that only after a minister’s intervention, the local police filed a basic FIR. The family is now demanding a fresh post mortem, all police proceedings in writing and an investigation under charges of murder and sexual assault.
TRIPUNITHURA: A 32-year-old housewife committed suicide on Friday after she was allegedly harassed by a group of police personnel at Hill Palace police station. The victim was identified as Sunitha alias Mini, from Mathur Colony. She ended her life by jumping in front of a speeding train near Mathur level cross in the wee hours of Friday.
Sources said the dalit woman was allegedly harassed by a few policemen at the station after her husband Babu was booked in connection with a case. Two weeks ago, the police had registered a case against Babu for allegedly attacking the owner of a super market near Eroor. Based on the complaint filed by the store owner, police registered a case and launched a hunt to locate Babu, who was absconding after the incident. As attempts to trace Babu failed, a police team started visiting his house on a regular basis. On Thursday, the police summoned Mini to the station and allegedly kept her in custody from morning till evening. The police team grilled her at the station for hours to collect information on Babu’s whereabouts.
Family members said that when Mini returned home that evening, she was emotionally disturbed. Local residents alleged that the police team, which used to visit the house in search of Babu, used to harass family members. Following Mini’s death, Babu returned home on Friday. The body was handed over to family members after autopsy.
Locals brought the body to the police station premises and staged a protest demanding action against the police personnel who harassed Mini. The situation was brought under control after police deployed more personnel at the spot to prevent any untoward incident. Later in the evening, the body was cremated at the municipal crematorium.
A murder suspect was given injections of acid and kerosene during police questioning in Uttar Pradesh, following which he fell sick and died in a hospital. Three errant policemen were suspended, an official said on Saturday.
Accused Balbir was brought to Avagarh police station in Etah district on Thursday and allegedly made to sit on a hot plate and given injections of acid and kerosene.
He died of infection and lacerations at a hospital in Lucknow on Friday evening, police said.
Family members of Balbir alleged that police tortured him to force him to confess to the crime.
Madhuri from Jagrit AdivasiDalit Sanghatan has been arrested today afternoon in a case that was filed against her and others as a result of protests for forcing a pregnant woman i.e. Baniya Bai who was in a critical condition and was in labour to deliver in full public view just outside the Menimata PHC.
The case was filed against Madhuri, Baniya Bai’s Husband, Basant and others by the compounder and was registered as FIR No 93 of 2008. Madhuri and others had received a court notice to appear in the Court of Shri D.P. Singh Sewach, JMFC on 16th May. Madhuri appeared and was informed that the police had filed a closure report (khatma) but had not stated clear reasons for the closure and therefore the report was refused. Madhuri was arrested from the court complex. She has been remanded in JC till 30th May 2013 and will be placed in Khargone women’s Jail.
This case of baniya Bai is also part of the writ petition filed in the High Court Of MP, Indore Bench in which the status of maternal health services was raised in light of 29 maternal deaths recorded in a span of 9 months in barwani DH.
Details of the case are as follows:
A ST resident of of village Sukhpuri, Barwani. Baniya Bai was taken to the Menimata PHC for delivery by her father-in-law, Dalsingh, on the night of 11 November 2008. They made the 15 km journey on a bullock cart because no other transport was available. After admitting and taking a cursory look at her, the compounder, V.K. Chauhan, and nurse, Nirmala, left the PHC and went home.
The next morning, Baniya was forced by the compounder and the nurse to leave the hospital. Her family was asked for Rs. 100, which they did not have and so Dalsing immediately went to get money from their village. Despite attempts to re-admit Baniya Bai to the PHC, the compounder flatly refused saying that they could not manage the delivery so she would have to go to Barwani DH or Silawad Hospital.
Baniya’s relatives tried to get the Menimata hospital compounder, nurse and staff to call for the Janani Express, but were unsuccessful. The family was told to make its own arrangements to refer to a higher hospital. When forced to leave the PHC Baniya Bai crawled out of the labour room, on to the road outside the PHC, where she lay down in severe pain.
Eventually, Baniya’s mother-in-law, Suvali Bai, went looking for a Dai in the marketplace and found Jambai Nana, who had come to market collect her wages. After hearing about Baniya Bai’s situation, Jambai agreed to assist her, and at around 12PM, conducted a normal delivery on the road outside the hospital. The father-in-law gave his dhoti (loin cloth) to provide cover for Baniya Bai during delivery. Following this incident, a crowd gathered outside the health centre.
Madhuri was passing by, inquired about what was happening. She then called up the Silawad CHC, the Silawad Police Station as well as health officials from Barwani. Upon being informed, senior officials from the health department ordered for a vehicle to be sent immediately to the Menimata PHC. After being denied emergency obstetric care and being forced to deliver in public view, Baniya Bai’s and her child were taken to the Silawad Hospital for admission. The compounder was suspended after repeated demands for action from JADS, but was soon reinstated.
Moga: A 17-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly raped by two brothers, also related to the victim, police said on Sunday.
Joginder Singh and Swaran Singh, both residents of Rauwal village, allegedly raped the girl on the evening of May 10 when she was alone in her house, they said.
The duo escaped after the victim’s mother arrived in the house and caught them in the act, police said, adding that the accused were relatives of the girl.
A case has been registered and a special investigation team has been constituted to probe the case in which no arrests have been made so far.
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