When the #metoo movement just brushed past India without creating much furrow, it didn’t surprise us much. After the 2012 gang rape case, laws are stricter yes! But have people changed, are the streets safer at night, well the ever growing cases of sexual harassment prove it otherwise. So the feeble impact of #metoo was understandable. But even the most unfazed people have certain limits and those limits are crossed, for a few seconds people can’t fathom a reaction then comes the outcry and the rage. So today in this article, I will talk about a specific incident which boils our blood at the same time goosebumps cover our body when we think about the monsters who are roaming about wearing human masks.
Now to the incident which had forced such a vivid introduction out of me. The notorious identity of Delhi as the rape capital got yet another feather to add to her hat. An eight-month year old baby was raped by her 28-year-old cousin.
Impossible as the above words are, those are true, the baby lives in Shakurbasti, northwest Delhi. The eight-month-old was at the care of her relatives when her mother who is a domestic maid and her father a labourer had left for work. On pretext of playing with her, her cousin named Suraj took her to a room in the top floor where he assaulted her. The police said that he had gagged the baby’s mouth so that her cries could not be heard by any other family member
When her mother returned home, she saw the apple of her eye crying and the cousin ran out of the house and his shirt had blood stains on it. When her mother went to her, she was horrified seeing her bleeding profusely from her private parts and there were blood stains on her dress. She at once informed her father and rushed her to Kalawati Saran Hospital where the doctors confirmed sexual assault and informed the police.
The main suspect Suraj, who was her 28-year-old cousin and himself a father initially had denied any connection to her condition, later he fled from his house confirming suspicions. According to police he had confessed to his crimes after interrogation. The accused was convicted for rape under POSCO and other crimes.
A few days after the incident, more alarming facts came into light. The father of the child had claimed when the baby girl was born, the accused cousin wanted to adopt her but her father refused.
To think of it, without the intervention of her father, the fate of the baby girl would have been permanently sealed with the monster of a cousin.
The little victim had to undergo three hour long surgeries and now she is stable, her parents are receiving counselling.
Chief of Delhi High Commission of Women visited the hospital, and she vehemently condemned the incident. She tweeted and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi for stricter laws under sexual harassment. The people of Delhi and other parts have raised their voices against this.
The day Sunday will be remembered under black headlines in pages of history of Delhi.
