Mannat Saini, Pune
The 45-year-old father of a gang rape victim was found dead by suicide in Hamirpur District of Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday, according to the police.
This came a few days after his daughter and niece were allegedly gang-raped at a brick kiln in Kanpur’s Ghatampur area. The families allege that the minor girls were forced to consume alcohol with the perpetrators before the attack. The perpetrators were the contractor of the brick kiln, Ram Roop, 48; his son Raju, 18; and his nephew Sanjay, 19. The accused also made a video recording of the act, which was recovered by the police. The Kanpur Police have arrested all three men involved under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). A case was filed against Nirmala, the kiln’s owner, and the accused’s wife, Ram Roop. The two victims died of suicide in Kanpur earlier this week.
According to the family of the victims, the father committed suicide owing to the pressure of withdrawing the complaint. They allege that Nirmala had come to Hamirpur to force the deceased to withdraw the case. His body was found 2 kilometers away from his house on Wednesday, hanging from a tree. Following the discovery of the body, local police assumed charge of the spot and sent the body for a postmortem. The SHO of Sisolar Police Station, Sanjay Singh, has been dismissed on grounds of dereliction of duty in this regard.
Hamirpur’s Superintendent of Police, Deeksha Sharma, confirmed the suicide and claimed that the reason behind it was not clear yet. In a recorded video intended for the media, Sharma claimed, “After receiving a complaint from the family members, action will be taken in the case per the law.”
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Congress General Secretary, attacked the Uttar Pradesh government in a post on X (formerly Twitter). The tweet, translated from Hindi, reads, “Two minor girls, victims of gang rape, committed suicide in Kanpur. Now the father of the girls has also committed suicide. It is alleged that pressure was being put on the victim’s family to compromise.
In Uttar Pradesh, if victimized girls and women ask for justice, it has become a rule to destroy their families. From Unnao, Hathras, and Kanpur- wherever women were tortured, their families were destroyed. Being a woman has become a crime in this jungle raj, where there is no such thing as law left.
After all, what should crores of women in the state do? Where should they go?”