MPs visit rape victims in Haryana, return shocked

11-member team surprised that they got no compensation

An 11-member panel of MPs that visited aggrieved families and victims of rape in Haryana on Wednesday not only expressed dismay over some of these families being socially marginalised, they also expressed surprise over the fact that the victims had not been provided any monetary compensation so far.

The visiting MPs are a part of the parliamentary  committee on the welfare of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.  

Sources said the panel felt that families were traumatised and they were not provided any compensation even as several leaders including AICC president Sonia Gandhi visited the state to take stock of the situation and console kin of the victims.

The committee members visited the family of a teenaged rape victim who killed herself at Sacha Khera village in Jind. Later they went to see a victim and her family at Kalayat in Kaithal district.

‘Protect them’

The panel asked the state government to ensure protection to the families of the victims and provide them monetary compensation.

The delegation was led by Gobinda Chandra Naskar, a Trinamool Congress MP from Bongaon in West Bangal. Other members included Mithlesh Kumar, Santosh Chaudhary, Ishwar Singh, Arjun Nekpal and Thapar Chand Gahlot.

It also came as a shock for the panel members to learn that some influential people in the villages were still haunting the families of victims.

Family insecure

The family of the rape victim at Sacha Khera in Jind stated that they would leave the
village since they were insecure.

The victim’s parents alleged that the police failed to instil a sense of security among them and that they were unable to move about freely in the village since villagers were hostile towards them.

One of the MPs said he was stunned to know that the family was not granted compensation even for cremation of the victim’s body.

Hostile atmosphere

In Kalayat, the victim’s family informed that groups of youths had been making rounds of the streets carrying lathis and challenging them to come out of their houses.

The panel, which took note of the incident, later held a meeting with the Haryana government officials including chief secretary P K Chaudhary and DGP Rajiv Dalal at a rest house in Kaithal.