Brother’s murder spurred ‘rape victim’ to speak out

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 24

Prosecution witness No 5 — that has been her identity for the past over a decade. For several years, the “rape victim” in the case against Sirsa dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was not keen to speak out about the incident.

“The turning point came when her brother, who was fighting for her honour, was murdered in 2002,” says Kurukshetra-based lawyer Sudesh Kumari.

“She was the youngest of the siblings and was very close to her brother, who was instrumental in sending her to the dera to become a sadhavi,” said Kumari, a leader of the Jan Sangharsh Manch, a group of Left-leaning activists who were the first to build up a public campaign on the issue.

“She was shattered after her brother’s murder. When I met her later, she told me, ‘Didi, now even if I have to go to hell to get justice, I will go there,” recalls Kumari.

The lawyer says the complainant used to tell her: “You can’t imagine what I have gone through in the dera.”

Kumari said the former sadhavi was hopeful of justice from the CBI, not the Haryana Police.

After her brother came to know about her sexual harassment, he brought her home and got her married. After his murder, it was tough for her to convince her in-laws to let her pursue the case against the dera chief, says Master Balwant Singh, a rationalist who hails from the complainant’s village in Kurukshetra district. He is also one of the prosecution witnesses in the murder case of the victim’s brother.

He says her brother was an influential man in the area and had motivated many people to become the baba’s followers. “When he found out about his sister’s harassment in 2001, he was a bit afraid, but wanted to expose the baba,” says Balwant Singh. “Initially, he had told only his brother-in-law about the incident.”

It is believed that the anonymous letter on the basis of which the rape case was registered was sent by her brother to the Prime Minister and others.

Baljit Kaur, who was the victim’s classmate and friend at Dayanand Mahila Mahavidyalaya, Kurukshetra, remembers her as an intelligent girl who led a simple lifestyle. “Unlike most other girls, she didn’t even get her ears pierced.”

“She was very beautiful. I have not seen any film star with her looks,” says Baljit. “I can’t imagine that all this happened to her,” she adds.