Goons punish whistleblower by maiming his niece

Four-year-old Aaina is the latest victim of rampant corruption in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in Rajasthan.

Life will never be the same for this girl as she suffered permanent damage to her brain in an attack by goons led by a sarpanch pati (husband of a sarpanch).

The attack was a revenge on her whistleblower uncle Shyamlal Bishoni, who demanded a probe into irregularities in MGNREGS work.

Aaina was allegedly flung on the ground by the sarpanch pati of Imarsar panchayat on June 6 night.

The girl was punished because her uncle was one of the villagers who had demanded an investigation into 17 road projects under the scheme in Nokha tehsil in Bikaner.

“The kid has lost her vision, speech and cognition. She cannot sit, stand or even recognise her parents. She is being fed through a tube,” said Shyamlal.

“Megh Singh came to our house at 11:30 pm with some goons. He was after my life as villagers had been asking for a probe into 17 roads built under the rural employment scheme. Until now, official investigation into one of the road projects has found irregularities worth Rs 4.66 lakh,” said Bishnoi.

“A probe into the rest 16 projects was pending and we were demanding an investigation,” he added.

He said he was not at home when the incident happened. “My sister and her three children were there. The kids were sleeping with her and their grandmother.”

The goons barged into the house and started beating up the women. Singh picked up the sleeping child and flung her out of the house, following which she suffered damage to her brain. She instantly lost her eyesight, memory and speech.

“We took her to a local hospital, from where she was referred to Bikaner. We stayed there for 20 days, but with no improvement, she was shifted to SMS Hospital in Jaipur,” said Bishnoi. Doctors said since her nervous system suffered irreparable damage, chances of recovery are less.

An FIR has been filed with Nokha police station and four persons have been arrested, though the main accused Singh is absconding.

Earlier, the Nokha tehsil in Bikaner was also in the news when a RTI activist, Dudaram, was allegedly attacked by goons led by the son of a sarpanch of Somalsar panchayat. Dudaram had unearthed a fraud to the rune of Rs 4 crore in MGNREGS.