Rape victim says she is being tormented by police

Rape victim says she is being tormented by police

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, March 4, 2013:  “How could I not be angry and depressed when policemen asked my family if they had given me away to the men?” said 14-year-old Nilofer (name changed) who was raped by two men nearly two months ago.

The two accused — Ismail (29) and his friend Rahim from Uppal in Kerala — were arrested on Friday. Ismail is the owner of the house where Nilofer stays with her mother, a domestic help, and elder sister.

Nilofer and her family were called to the Ullal police station on the same day. They spent more than five hours there, and were inadvertently brought face to face with the accused.

“Some policemen were taking Ismail and Rahim to the jeep to be taken to court. Ismail smiled slyly at me and shook a finger, threatening to teach me a lesson,” she said.

Her family said the police did not even offer water to them though they were at the station from 2 p.m. to 7.30 p.m., and even “shouted” at them when they sought to go home.

“I don’t mind going to court, but I don’t want to go to the station again,” the class IX student said.

Statement

She recalls the first statement she gave on December 5 last year and said the police chastised her for being unsure or giving conflicting details.

“They said if I don’t talk properly, they’ll hit me and send me to jail,” she said.

The family has received several threat calls allegedly from the associates of the accused, asking them to drop the case, some even offering money in exchange, Nilofer’s sister said.

Nilofer would rather not talk about her “kidnap”, and instead hands over papers on which she had described the sequence of events. On December 4 afternoon, while her mother and sister were out of the house, Ismail allegedly lured her out of the house on the pretext of buying her clothes, she says. Rahim picked them up in his car, and at Sullia she was given a cool drink that made her “feel faint and giddy”.

She was raped in Kasaragod district in Kerala, after which they drove down to Ismail’s aunt’s place in B.C. Road seeking shelter. When they were refused shelter there, the duo reportedly dropped her near her house.

The police said she was called on Friday only to “identify the vehicle” and denied keeping her in the station unnecessarily.

“We had to get certain facts right. There were a lot of discrepancies in the statements of the victim and accused,” a police official said.

When pressed for an example of the discrepancy, he said while the girl said she was taken to a house in B.C. Road, the accused said the house was beyond Bantwal. (B.C. Road is a few kilometres away from Bantwal).

Asha Nayak, chairperson of the Dakshina Kannada district Child Welfare Committee, said: “The police have been callous about the case, and though the girl spent 11 days in the ICU, they doubt the brutality of the rape. After the incident, she couldn’t walk and was traumatised, and they expect her statement to have minute details? The girl needs counselling and the attitude of the police is affecting her adversely.”

 

Courtesy : The Hindu(Mohit M. Rao)