In a quite contrast to the candlelight marches being taken out in cities by thousand of people to express their sentiments over any incident, people belonging to the native village of the Delhi rape victim, Gudia, are silently engaged in performing ‘Havan Yagna’ at Phulkaha village under Kanhaulia police station area of Sitarmarhi district, seeking the divine’s intervention for the early recovery of the five-year-old girl.
Villagers are so agitated over the brutal rape of the little girl that they have decided to block the National Highway 77, connecting Hajipur to Sonbarsa on Bihar-Nepal border, from Monday in support of their demand for the harshest possible punishment to the rape accused, Manoj Kumar, presently cooling his heels in the lock up of Delhi Police.
His native village, Bharpuha village under Orai police station area in Muzaffarpur district, has yet to come out from the mixed feelings of anguish and grief over the misdeed of the youth but villagers are reconciling to the fact slowly.
Sources said that his grandfather Heera Sah and grandmother are completely shell shocked, not knowing exactly how to restrain themselves from cursing their 22-year-old grandson, whose behaviour towards them was also not good.
His grandfather in his plain speaking does not hesitate in demanding the harshest possible punishment to his grandson. His grandmother has also no love left for the accused.
Manoj Kumar was arrested from his in-law’s house at Chiknautha village under Karja police station area in Muzaffarpur district on Saturday in a joint operation of Delhi Police and Muzaffarpur Police. later, Delhi Police took him to the national Capital by air amid tight security arrangement.
His wife, Archana Devi, who had defended her husband on Saturday by claiming that Manoj Kumar confessed to his crime under duress, is also slowly coming to grips with the situation and she has also joined the chorus of all other villagers, demanding the harshest possible punishment to him if he is found guilty of outraging the modesty of the girl.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has condemned the incident, describing it as act which shamed the entire humanity. He said that it is a heinous crime and deserves condemnation in the strongest term. He also demanded stern action against the culprit.
Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh police have launched a massive manhunt for a rape accused, Firoz Khan in Bihar’s Banka district on Sunday. He has been charged with outraging the modesty of a four-year-old girl in Seoni district of the State.
Superintendent of Police of Banka, Pushkar Anand, told The Pioneer that the MP Police and the district police jointly conducted raids at the native village of Firoz, Dhibra in the district but he could not be nabbed.
The police are interrogating father, mother and wife of Firoz to get vital clues from them. Firoz works at Jhabua Power Plant limited and has allegedly outraged the modesty of the girl after luring her with biscuits and chocolates on April 17. She was found lying in a field next day in an unconscious condition. She was initially admitted to a hospital in Jabalpur but was later airlifted to a Nagpur-based hospital for her better treatment.