Justice Bludgeoned

Howsoever bizarre and atrocious it may sound, a man in Haryana has been sentenced to life after he and his wife attempted suicide outside a senior police officer’s office in Rohtak. While he was saved, his wife died due to effects of poison. The couple resorted to the extreme step as they were exasperated with the police inaction on the woman’s complaint against four men who had allegedly gang raped her in June 2008. The man was charged with murder of his own wife.

The story is extremely poignant, the one that underscores the callous and criminally negligent attitude of the police in Haryana.  The 28 year old woman died seeking justice and she hasn’t been given justice even years after her death. All she has got is that her two children aged 10 and 12 have been orphaned, as her husband has been jailed for life on the charge of her murder. 

The victim has named several police officers including the then IG, Rohtak and SP of Karnal, holding them responsible for driving her to take the extreme step.

According to their family, police deliberately did not bring on record the victim's original suicide note before the court, in order to prove that her husband had administered her poison. The victim had named the police officials who did not act on her complaint. While the husband has been in jail since July 2009, and now a convict, the biggest irony is that all the rape accused, except one, are still roaming free.

The 28 year old woman, mother of two, was allegedly gang raped in June 2008 by four men. As her repeated visits to the concerned police station for months went futile with the police taking no action against the powerful accused, the couple consumed poison right outside the office of Rohtak Inspector General of Police on May 6, 2009. And now, four years later, a Rohtak court has sentenced the man to life imprisonment for murdering the victim by administering her poison.

But their family alleges that the police framed him. The man’s father says that the police did not place on record the victim's original suicide note before the trial court and it presented a false FSL report to frame his son.

While still no action has been taken against the police officers named by the victim in her suicide note for not acting on her complaint, it took a month long protest by the kids of the victim and their grandparents to force the police to finally arrest an accused. Arrested accused, Jeetendra is facing trial in Panipat court. The family had to move the Punjab and Haryana high court to seek action against rest of the accused as well, which is hearing the case.

Abhishek Chaudhary, the lawyer representing the victim's husband says they will appeal in the high court against the trial court's verdict, as the police had acted with mala fide intention.

The incident has ruined the family with two children orphaned after their mother died seeking justice against her rapists and their father now in jail for life. Their old grandparents believe that it's the police that is to be blamed, first for not acting against the powerful rapists and then in order to save their own skin, they framed their innocent son for his own wife's murder.

  

       * The story first appeared in The Indian Express’s Chandigarh edition.