Rape victim attempts suicide

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 12

A married woman (19) from Kailash Nagar reportedly attempted to commit suicide on the Civil Lines flyover (Old Lakkar Bridge) against police action on a rape complaint filed by her. As she tried to jump from the bridge, two youngsters crossing the flyover stopped her from taking the extreme step.

The woman, who was allegedly raped for a second time, by her husband and two of his brothers, said she was not being heard seriously by the police. Earlier when she was raped, a compromise was reached and the main accused agreed to marry her.

The woman said she had been meeting the senior police officials, including the Police Commissioner, Basti Jodhewal SHO and women cell officials, but nobody was able to give justice to her. She wanted to kill herself by jumping from the bridge as she was unable to bear mental harassment anymore.

High drama was witnessed on the bridge for over half an hour at 3 pm. The traffic came to a standstill for a while as people gathered there to enquire about the matter.

The woman’s mother told Ludhiana Tribune that both of them had been running from pillar to post to get justice. All officials had been making hollow promises. “We today went to the Women Cell office to know about the status of our complaint. However, no official was able to give us the exact status of the complaint. Angry at the lackadaisical approach of the police, my daughter ran towards the Lakkar Bridge. She was scaling the parapet of the bridge to jump off when two youngsters arrived there and stopped her from taking the extreme step,” a wailing mother said.

“We were crossing the flyover when we noticed a woman trying to scale the parapet. She told us that the police were not taking action on her complaint due to which she wanted to end her life,” two bikers told Ludhiana Tribune.

Meanwhile, an officer of Women Cell, SI Kiran Lata, said the girl had lodged a complaint and investigation was being conducted by ASI Sukhwinder. Both parties would be called soon. She, however, expressed ignorance about the fact that the girl attempted suicide. When contacted, Police Commissioner Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh said the matter had not come to his notice, and if anything of this sort happened, he would get the matter enquired into.

Her ordeal

I was raped by two brothers last year in February and a case was registered. However, one of the brothers later agreed to marry me on the condition that the case had to be taken back. I married the boy in November 2016 and he then sought two-hour special permission from the court for the marriage. He was sent back to jail after the marriage. Meanwhile, my in-laws refused to take me home, saying that let the boy come out of the jail first. The day the FIR was cancelled, the boy and his father refused to keep me at home and asked me to bring Rs 10 lakh in cash, which they claimed to have spent on the court case. In January this year, my husband took me to his factory where two of his brothers were also present. My husband forced me to consume liquor following which he and his two brothers raped me. They also videotaped me in an objectionable state, and now they are using that video clip to blackmail me. What should I do? It is better to end life.