The National Scheduled Castes Alliance (NSCA),a non-governmental organisation (NGO) has accused the Punjab police of negliging the alleged gang rape case of a 13-year-old Dalit girl.
The NSCA working as a socio-political organization for the SCs in Punjab said, “The rape incident took place in SAS Nagar (Mohali) district on 3 July 2016, but the three accused in the case are yet to be arrested.”
The NSCA President, Paramjit Singh Kainth demanded immediate arrest of the accused and strict action against each and everyone who tried to manipulate the case and shield the accused from being put behind bars.
While addressing a Press conference, he said, “No political party or any social organisation has spoken about this issue as the victim is from scheduled caste (SC) community and belongs to a poor family. We’ve had cases of gang rape in the past, even legislation has been made in the Parliament related to this issue, but still we are forced to see marginalisation of cases relating to SC community.”
Kainth further claimed, “It’s been more than 6 months and no organisation or any judicial branch has taken notice of the situation and this case has been at the mercy of the corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy. A delegation of NSCA had met with the Inspector General of Police of Patiala Zone last month, where they brought to light the issue in which the police had not charged the accused with Section 376-D of IPC (gang rape) and Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989 in the FIR, to shield the accused from harsher punishments.”
The girl’s father, Jaswant Singh told The Statesman, “That his daughter has been mentally traumatised ever since the rape incident and has left school and other daily routines. Instead of taking action against the accused, we are being pressurized to agree for a compromise in the case.”
