One year on, Braveheart’s parents organise Narayan Bali puja in UP’s Balia
Sakshi Chand
It was on December 29, 2012 that the 23-year-old Braveheart breathed her last at a hospital in Singapore. A year has passed since she departed leaving her family distraught and broken. Her first death anniversary revived the wounds as her parents said that they have not slept properly ever since and her thought keeps haunting them.
Commemorating her, her parents organised a puja. They had left for their hometown in Balia, Uttar Pradesh on December 25. The 23-year-old girl was brutalised by a gang of five men and a juvenile in a moving bus on December 16, last year. Not just the family, but the entire nation mourned her death and saluted her brave spirit. After 13 days of struggle, she left a message for the nation to fight boldly against such injustices. Her last words before she died were that she wanted to live. Speaking to The Pioneer, the victim’s father said that a special puja was organised at their native village. “The Narayan Bali puja was performed at her birthplace by our ancestral priest. The puja was carried out for four to five hours. After the puja was over, bhog was served to the entire community,” said the father. The village elders feel that she should always be remembered in the country for the spirit that she fought in.
Her parents are still not at peace and want all the convicts to be hanged so that their daughter is delivered justice. Remembering her on the occasion, her father said that all parents should be brave and fight against such incidents to prevent greater injustices in the society. “The safety of women in not just the Capital, but the entire country is the need of the hour,” said the father.
The rape that shook our conscience
Mahender Singh Manral
The horror story of the December 16 gang-rape case — which shook the conscience of the entire nation — continues to haunt police officials who first learnt of the gory details of the dreadful night from the victim herself.
Inspector Raj Kumari was the first female police officer to reach the Safdarjung Hospital after the call about the horrendous gang-rape incident. She had earlier investigated a number of highlighted cases, such as Dhaula Kuan gang-rape case of a North-East girl in 2010, Baby Falak case, but Kumari said she “felt numbness” after seeing the condition of the 23-year-old gang-rape victim and after counselling her she recorded her statement within seven minutes. The sheer brutality of the rape was perceptible all over her body as she struggled to survive. After her death, the officials of the South District Police took the responsibility of delivering justice to the tormented soul.
37-year-old Kumari, then posted with Vasant Kunj (North) Police Station of South Delhi, was on her night duty and was registering the case of rape of a 10-year-old girl. In the meantime, she received a call from the district control room informing her about a couple found lying in a pool of blood in Mahipalpur road by a security guard of a construction company, who made a PCR call around 10.25 pm from Gurgaon toll plaza. The PCR call first went to the Gurgaon Police, who alerted the South-West district of the Delhi Police. The call was finally transferred to the South District Police, while the victims were immediately shifted to the Safdarjung Hospital at around 11 pm. “In my career of 20 years, I have seen several heinous crimes but for the first time I witnessed such brutality. the Senior doctors informed us they too were shocked at the condition of the victim as the entrails of her guts had been gouged out. the doctors were not sure she could be saved. But, after seeing the courageous struggle of the victim, one time we thought she might be saved and hence, she was flown to a hospital in Singapore,” said Kumari.
“I was in tears when I learnt about her death. It was not shocking, but I personally felt that I lost someone close as I was the one with whom she shared her ordeal,” she added.