Shreyas H S
Daijiworld Media Network - Bantwal
Bantwal, May 10: The silence at the house of the 14-year-old rape victim in Idkidu village, Vittal, is deafening. It screams out the torture that the minor girl underwent and still lives through each day of her life.
The young girl was raped repeatedly over three days from April 18 to April 20 by three different men of the vicinity.
Jabbar's house
Jabbar's house locked
Jabbar's car at Vittal police station
Radhukatte Basheer's house
The girl’s hapless mother bangs her forehead against the wall in despair, shouting, “Who will marry my daughter?” This bears tragic testimony to the emotions roiling through a distressed mother while ministers from the coastal district are blatantly passing the buck.
The three accused booked under rape charges are Radhukatte Basheer, Bakuta Basheer, and Jabbar who are residents of Vittal.
The girl, a student of 9th standard, was repeatedly raped for three days after she was abducted from her home. The three adult men had allegedly threatened to kill the girl’s widowed mother, if she refused to co-operate with them. Though the victim registered a complaint with police on April 23, 2014, and identified the photos of the three accused, the police department still has no clue of the whereabouts of the accused despite two weeks having passed.
When Daijiworld contacted district-in-charge minister Ramanath Rai, he said, "Rape incidents these days are often reported in newspapers and on TV. We try our best to arrest the accused. But if the police fail to arrest them, we are not to be blamed. I served as minister thrice and know how to handle law and order. It is common knowledge that people blame the government for everything without reason.”
He expressed confidence in the police department saying it is strong enough in all aspec ts to deal with the problem and they would trace and arrest the culprits in a few days.
Meanwhile, the girl now sits at the window of her house, her vacant eyes watching her friends at play building a ‘dream home’ with the pliable mud soaked wet by the pre monsoon rains.
Health minister and MLA of Ullal U T Khadar who was on a visit to ‘Muttu Pete Darga’ and Velankanni Church on May 6, 2014, said that he spoke to the district-in-charge minister about the rape incident. “As per my knowledge, the minister has had a conversation with the police commissioner. The Congress government is with the minor girl. The police will arrest the culprits in a short time,” he assured.
The victimized girl desolately says, “He (Radhukatte Basheer, a married man) kept calling my mother's cell phone claiming to know me. He started making calls from April 5, 2014 falsely identifying himself as Razak and forced me to meet him on April 18, 2014.”
The victim claimed that on that fateful day, Radhukatte Basheer along with Bakuta Basheer arrived at her home. Radhukatte Basheer, who called her from the spot, asked her to step outside the house to meet him saying, “Now you will know who I am”. When she arrived at the spot, she was allegedly pulled inside the Maruthi 800 car that immediately fled the place. From their conversation, she understood that she was in some hilly area near Madikeri where they allegedly coerced her into co-operating by threatening to kill her mother. “All my protests were in vain and they said they would kill my mother if I did not do what they wanted,” said the girl.
The mother, however, learned of this inhuman act only when her daughter told her what occurred after three days. The family, with the support of the girl’s maternal uncle Abdul Hakim took her to Vittal police station where she filed a complaint about the rape. “We immediately informed Vittal police about the clues related to the rapists, but they allowed them to flee from the location we had informed about,” said Hakim.
“We have divulged the photo identities of the three accused but the police are still unable to trace them. Had the incident occurred in a city, the department would have come to the rescue of the victim speedily,” he contended.
Meanwhile, Bakuta Basheer, who had been working earlier in Dubai, is learnt to have left the country, and sources revealed that the other accused were also preparing to do the same.
He has also written a letter to the High Court of Karnataka and the home minister to seek justice for the minor girl.
Superintendent of police Shivanna speaking to Daijworld after attending a review meeting on the case, said, “The department is committed to arresting the culprits. The department has been actively carrying out search operations and will arrest them in a few days.” When asked if the police were informed of the whereabouts of the accused by the family, he denied that any such information was given to any police station. The police have now seized the Zen car used by Jabbar in the incident. Shivanna said further investigations are on in full swing to trace the culprits.
The victim says, she was dropped home early in the morning on April 19, 2014. Knowing about the incident, Radhukatte Basheer's friend Jabbar phoned her warning that he would disclose the incident to her neighbours if she did not accompany him. “I had no option but to obey him. He took me in his Zen car to an unknown place. I protested, but he twice....” she paused, and disappeared from the room.