Activists protest over Jind rape case

Women and human rights activists gathered outside Haryana Bhavan on Wednesday in protest against the “silence” of the Haryana government over the alleged rape and murder of a 20-year-old Dalit girl in Jind.

They demanded that the investigation report must be completed soon and post-mortem reports from AIIMS should be made available to the family of the deceased girl.

Nearly 200 activists comprising members of All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch, Rastriya Dalit Mahila Andolan, Saheli, Jagori, Nirantar, Action India and others staged a demonstration.

“We want to bring to your notice the increasing crimes against Dalit girls and women in Haryana. Ranging from teasing and harassment to gruesome crimes like rapes and murders have been reported from all across Haryana. We are concerned about the apathy of police, medical officers, investigations teams and justice system in delivering justice to survivors and their families,” said a protester.

A memorandum was also submitted to the Haryana chief minister through the resident commissioner at Haryana Bhavan. The key demands were to conduct a review of Haryana and declare the state as “atrocity prone area” according to the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe Prevention of Atrocities Act.

Also, compensation should be given to families of caste or gender based violence victims as well as legal support should be provided to them. The girl had left home at Baniyakheda in Jind district of Haryana to appear for an examination on August 24. A day later her body was found on a deserted stretch near a canal in Jind.

Family members and villagers alleged that the girl was sexually assaulted. According to reports, the mother of the girl said her daughter was brutally assaulted and there were marks all over her body.

Three post-mortems have been conducted so far, but the cause of death is still not clear.