A 13 year old daughter of a rag picker was abducted by six men in a moving car when she was returning home with her brother after doing domestic work on May 2, 2005 in Lucknow. She was beaten with a belt, burnt by cigarettes and gang raped in the moving car. She was again gang raped and tortured in an isolated plot owned by the prime accused Gaurav Shukla. The victim was then thrown away by the rapists in a remote place. She returned home in a devastated condition. An F.I.R. was lodged in the Ashiyana police station in Lucknow.
A 13 year old daughter of a rag picker was abducted by six men in a moving car when she was returning home with her brother after doing domestic work on May 2, 2005 in Lucknow. She was beaten with a belt, burnt by cigarettes and gang raped in the moving car. She was again gang raped and tortured in an isolated plot owned by the prime accused Gaurav Shukla. The victim was then thrown away by the rapists in a remote place. She returned home in a devastated condition. An F.I.R. was lodged in the Ashiyana police station in Lucknow.
Since the accused had political patronage, the state administration, including the state women’s commission, tried to manipulate the case to protect the accused. The medical report of the victim was manipulated. The victim’s family was threatened. Attempts were made to bribe the family to withdraw the case. The girl was sent to the women’s protection home by the women’s commission, where she was not allowed to meet anyone. The state women’s commission played a dubious role and implicated three innocent boys who were sent to jail.
Sustained struggles by AIDWA and other organisations forced the state government to take action and all the six accused were arrested after three months. After a year-long trial for two of the accused, they were sentenced to jail for 10 years. Two other accused were sentenced by the juvenile court. Faizan, one of six accused, got life imprisonment on January 21, 2013.
The rape survivor faced the cross examination of the defence lawyer with great courage. Her determination to fight for justice was unprecedented. The prime accused, Gaurav Shukla, left no stone unturned to save himself. He appointed senior lawyers to defend him. He submitted forged educational documents to mislead the court that he was a minor. AIDWA helped the victim’s father to procure documents that exposed this fraud and challenge his minor status. The juvenile justice board took three years to inquire into the matter and finally, on January 15, 2013, the prime accused was declared a major at the time of the crime. This was the crucial turn in this case.
Gaurav filed a revision petition against this judgement in the high court, but his appeal was rejected. Using his political connections, he got the case-related files missing from records room. Finally, the trial of Gaurav Shukla started on November 30, 2015 and concluded in February 2016. Gaurav and his family came to the court along with their gang of musclemen and battery of lawyers to intimidate the victim. AIDWA firmly stood by the victim at every step. After an eleven year-long battle, Gaurav was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on April 18, 2016.
‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,’ is a famous line from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. The same sentence perfectly fits West Bengal today under Mamata Banerjee’s TMC rule.
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Crimes including the most brutal and heinous crimes of murder and rape against women have been committed with impunity by known criminals who enjoy political patronage.
