Haryana: Teen rape victim asked to leave school

New Delhi: Another shocker from Haryana where a 13-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a food vendor outside her school for over three months. Now the school authorities have responded to the incident by throwing out the minor and her siblings out of school. This is the sixteenth rape reported from the state in one month.

The 62-year-old accused who runs a food-cart outside victim's school in Fatehabad, allegedly lured the victim with food and repeatedly raped her over three months. The incident came to light on Saturday when the victim complained to her father.

The teenager, a student of class six in a government school, was made to undergo a medical examination and it confirmed rape, following which a case was filed and the suspect was arrested. Shockingly, the victim and her two sisters have been asked to leave the school. The decision was taken by the school's principal and village panchayat.

Ironically, the state government on Friday announced several steps to tackle the crime against woman, including a round-the-clock help line and increased patrolling by the police in rural areas. On Saturday, the special women helpline number 81466-93100 was installed in Police Control Room, Panchkula.

Haryana's state of shame

The Jind gangrape

A teenaged Dalit girl in Jind died after she set herself on fire on the night of October 7 after she was allegedly gangraped. The four accused have been arrested.

She was rushed to the civil hospital in Jind district, and was later referred to PGIMS at Rohtak in serious condition. The girl breathed her last on Saturday evening in the Rohtak hospital. Reports said that the 16-year-old girl was forcibly taken to the house of one of the suspects where the crime occurred.

Earlier on Saturday, the victim in her statement to the police said that one of her neighbours Pradeep allegedly dragged her into his house while the sister-in-law of the accused kept guard standing on the terrace of the house so that nobody could come inside. Pradeep and another youth Naveen raped the teenager.

The Bhiwani rape

A minor girl was reportedly raped in Bhiwani, Haryana around the beginning of this month. The Director General of Police cancelled the leaves of all police personnel for the month of October after the incident was reported.

Sources said that a special drive was also initiated to identify lumpen elements, unemployed youth, vagabonds and criminals in each village of the state and prepare reports and lists and take action against them.

The Sonepat gangrape

A class 11 student was gangraped in Gohana near Sonepat in Haryana by four men on September 27. Three accused were arrested and a case was registered. According to police, the girl was raped in a busy market area on Thursday afternoon but her family filed the complaint only on Friday.

The Jind gangrape

In the same week, a woman in Jind was raped by three men. The accused barged into the woman's house looking for her husband and when they did not find him, they brutally raped her. The victim was from a backward caste. Her daughter stood outside the house screaming in fright. The victim said that the men made a video of the whole gruesome act and threatened to make it public if she reported the matter to the police.

The Hisar gangrape

A 16-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly gangraped by eight upper caste men on September 9 in the Dabra area of Hisar. The case came to light only 10 days later, on September 19, after the distraught minor broke down in front of her parents and narrated the incident.

To make matters worse, when the girl's father approached the police for help, they reportedly refused to file an FIR. The helpless father committed suicide the next day. The police arrested one of the accused after the residents of the area refused to cremate the body of the victim's father until arrests were made.

The accused reportedly made an MMS clip of the incident and circulated it. The girl's uncle told reporters, "The girl was scared and did not report the incident to her family. The accused had threatened to kill her if she approached the police. But when the MMS clip was circulated in the entire village and the people came to know, her father decided to report the matter to the police. However, I don't know what happened. He took the extreme step the next day."

Here is how a khap panchayat member thinks rapes can be dealt with:

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