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Temple rape: Lawyer braves threats, says it’s a fight for her daughter too

News Network
April 15, 2018

Jammu, Apr 15: Deepika Singh Rajawat, an advocate in Jammu, who faced the wrath of Hindutva politics after taking up the case of temple gang-rape, says that her fight is not just for the 8-year-old child who was raped but for all children including her daughter.

“That is my daughter. She is five years old and her name is Ashtami. I am fighting this case also for her,” says Rajawat showing the framed photograph of a chubby, smiling girl on the desk in a small room of her house in Jammu.

Within days after Rajawat took up the case of the 8-year-old Bakarwal girl who was drugged and gang-raped for a week in a temple and murdered in January, she began getting threats to stay away. Many from the Bar took to the streets — some brandishing sticks — and shouted slogans against the state government, asking that the case be transferred from the J&K police’s crime branch to the CBI.

Not one to be cowed into silence, she went on Facebook a day after the incident on April 5 and wrote: “The president of the Jammu High Court Bar Association mistreated me. He used unparliamentary language and threatened me not to appear in cases during a strike by the lawyers.”

Showing the copy of a letter she received from the Jammu & Kashmir HC on Saturday that asks the in-charge of the security wing of the court to provide her protection during her appearances, she said, “But when I confronted the senior advocate and told him that I can fight any case I want, I was told there are ways to stop me. But this letter from the high court gives me strength even though there is a corner in my heart that is a little afraid. These are powerful people.”

Rajawat had earlier also filed a complaint on the issue with the Chief Justice of J&K HC and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. She said she was not safe and she had no idea how long the protests by the lawyers’ body would go on.

The case, in the Kootah court right now as Rasana comes under its jurisdiction, saw a dramatic turn when recently lawyers tried to stop the chargesheet, which narrates in detail the crime against the Bakarwal girl, from being forwarded.

Asked if she is confident she will win as the crime branch, which is probing the rape-murder, has lost precious forensic evidence (the girl’s body was allegedly bathed and her clothes washed soon after she was found), she said, “It’s really messed up. The first few days after the crime was detected, some dreadful things happened. The local police station did not file an FIR. That happened only after 2-3 days. On January 17, her body was found. Then the ‘clean-up’ began. It was being hushed up. The policeman who did this is one of the eight accused.”

Rajawat, who said seriousness in the “pursuit for justice” came only after the HC intervened, asked why she should support seeking a CBI probe. “Does the CBI have a spotless record? I can rattle off cases that have been botched. I am happy with what the crime branch is doing. Though there have been setbacks, we have covered some ground. There are repairs being made. Just that the case now has to be transferred to some other part of the state. That is our only hope.”

Comments

angel of death
 - 
Monday, 16 Apr 2018

Great lady, i really appricate for your courage.. today is 8 year old muslim child tomorrow may be all indian child... so wake up all coward hindus... your religion has been hijaked by so called chutiya ram bakth & dickless desh bakth...before they come to your house asking for your daughter wake up... 

fabeen
 - 
Sunday, 15 Apr 2018

Please stand with this brave women lawer...we salute you sister....

A Father
 - 
Sunday, 15 Apr 2018

Dear Advocate, 

 

I salute you for the cause you are fighting.

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Agencies
August 6,2020

Mumbai, Aug 6: Former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan said on Thursday that overly focusing on what sovereign rating agencies think can take one's eyes off what needs to be done for the economy.

"It is also important to convince both domestic and international investors that after the crisis associated with the pandemic is over, we will return to fiscal responsibility over the medium term, and the government should do more to convince them of that," Rajan told the Global Markets Forum.

India was placed under one of the strictest lockdowns in the world in late March for more than two months to stem the spread of the coronavirus, but cases have continued to rise steadily since the government eased restrictions in June, stymieing hopes of an economic recovery.

The government has announced several initiatives to help the poor and small- and medium-size businesses, but actual cash outgo from the government's measures has been estimated at just about 1% of GDP.

Several attribute the fiscal prudence to fear of a downgrade after Moody's cut India's rating and outlook in early June followed closely by a change in outlook from Fitch.

The central bank on its part too has reduced the key lending rate by 115 basis points on top of the 135 bps last year and is widely expected to cut rates by another 25 bps later on Thursday.

"The RBI and government have certainly been cooperating, but it seems like it is elsewhere, the ball is in the government's court to do more," Rajan said.

He said the RBI needs to focus on whether credit is reaching the stressed areas of the economy and also if the viable firms were able to access credit and not the unviable ones.

"And I think that's where it has to focus its attentions, because resources, as you well know, are limited in India today."

Recently analysts, however, have cited the growing possibility the RBI may prefer to pause and cut rates only at its October meeting.

Government officials too have suggested the possibility of any more fiscal stimulus being announced, would only come in the second half of the fiscal year, once a recovery has taken root and coronavirus cases have peaked.

"What India should focus on at this point is protecting its economic capabilities, so that when it has dealt with the virus it can go resume activity in a reasonable way. That should be the focus," Rajan said.

"And if it does that, there is no reason why the rating agencies will not see that as an appropriate policy".

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News Network
June 8,2020

New Delhi, Jun 8: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has announced that malls, restaurants and religious places in the national capital would open from Monday after more than two months since the coronavirus-induced lockdown was imposed, but banquet halls and hotels would remain closed.

At an online briefing on Sunday, Kejriwal said hotels and banquet halls might be converted into hospitals in the coming days to treat coronavirus patients and therefore, they would remain shut.

"Malls, restaurants and religious places will be opening from Monday in Delhi in accordance with the Centre's guidelines," he said.

The city government will comply with the instructions of the Centre and its experts like maintaining social distancing and wearing of masks at these places, Kejriwal said.

"In view of the rising number of coronavirus cases, we might attach hotels and banquet halls with hospitals and convert them into hospitals. Hotels and banquet halls will not be opened for now," he said.

The Centre had said on May 30 that "Unlock-1" would be initiated in the country from June 8 and the lockdown would be relaxed to a great extent.

The Delhi government also issued an order allowing opening of restaurants, shopping malls and places of worship except in the COVID-19 containment zones, "subject to compliance with the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare".

Kejriwal urged the elderly people, who are at a higher risk of contracting the coronavirus, to confine themselves in a room and not to interact with even the family members in order to protect themselves.

Delhi has so far registered over 27,500 coronavirus cases, including 761 deaths.

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Agencies
May 26,2020

New Delhi, May 26: As India ranked 10th in the global infection list, overtaking Iran, which was an early hotspot of coronavirus, India's top medical body has said the human trials of COVID-19 vaccine may begin at least in six months.

Dr. Rajni Kant, Director Regional Medical Research Centre and Head at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said, "The virus strain isolated at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) laboratory in Pune will be used to develop the vaccine, and this strain has been successfully transferred to the Bharat Biotech International Ltd. (BBIL). It is expected that the human trials of the vaccine will begin in at least six months."

Queried on the focus areas as India inches closer to 1.4 lakh COVID-19 cases, Kant said we should not get anxious about the rapid increase in numbers, especially in the past week, which saw 5,000 Covid-19 cases daily, instead focus on protecting the most vulnerable group.

"We should not fear from increasing Covid-19 cases. The elderly and people with comorbidities need protection. This is the highly vulnerable group, and we need to deploy resources and develop strategies to keep the mortality rate as low as possible in this group," said Kant.

Initially, it was assumed that the country would require thousands of ventilators, but last week, the health ministry said only 0.45 per cent of COVID-19 cases need ventilator support.

Kant insisted the focus should be on five per cent to 10 per cent serious patients. "We are testing more than one lakh daily and our case fatality rate is already one of the lowest in the world. In absence of vaccine, people should follow social distancing guidelines," he added

On the significance of the recovery rate, Kant said the increasing recovery rate of the COVID-19 patients, which is at 41 per cent, is a bright spot in India's fight against deadly viral infection.

Queried on large scale COVID-19 cases in Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad, Kant said the population density in these regions is very high, which proves to be the just right environment for the viral infection.

He insisted on developing robust cluster management strategies in the hard-hit coronavirus spots, and the movement of people should be curtailed in these areas.

"Currently, a lot of people are moving around easily and avoiding social distancing norms. The first phase of the lockdown was very effective, but now things have changed," added Kant.

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