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
January 9,2020

Noida, Jan 6: A fire broke out at the ESIC Hospital in Noida on Thursday morning and firefighting was underway, officials said.

The blaze broke out in the basement of the seven-storey hospital building located in Sector 24, a police official said.

Fire tenders were rushed to the spot after the Fire Department was alerted about it around 8 am, the official said.

After that, a search was done to see if anyone was trapped in the building, he said.

The cooling process is now underway.

He said the fire had engulfed the ground, first and second floors of the building, except the basement.

Police said they received information about fire at Kaveri printing press at 2:45 am, when the manager Yogesh called them. The press owners have been identified as Atul and Anuj Goyal, residents of Sukhdev Vihar, they said.

The man who died in the fire has been identified as Phool Dev, from Bihar, who used to work as a help there. Dev went inside the building in the night to sleep before the fire started and died due to suffocation, the fire department official said.

The body has been kept at Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital and the post-mortem will be done once the family reaches here, police said.

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Agencies
July 21,2020

New Delhi, Jul 21: The Centre has written to all states and union territories warning against the use of N-95 masks with valved respirators by people, saying these do not prevent the virus from spreading out and are "detrimental" to the measures adopted for its containment.

The Director General of Health Services (DGHS) in the Ministry of Health, in a letter to the Principal Secretaries of health and medical education of states, said it has been observed that there is "inappropriate use" of N-95 masks, particularly those with valved respirators, by the public other than designated health workers.

The DGHS referred to the advisory on the use of homemade protective cover for face and mouth available on the website of the Ministry of Health.

"It is to bring to your knowledge that the use of valved respirator N-95 masks is detrimental to the measures adopted for preventing the spread of coronavirus as it does not prevent the virus from escaping out of the mask. In view of the above, I request you to instruct all concerned to follow the use of face/mouth cover and prevent inappropriate use of N-95 masks," DGHS Rajiv Garg said in the letter.

The government had in April issued an advisory on the use of homemade protective cover for face and mouth, asking people to wear it, particularly when they step out of their residences.

The advisory stressed such face covers must be washed and cleaned each day, as instructed, and stated that any used cotton cloth can be used to make this face cover.

The colour of the fabric does not matter but one must ensure that the fabric is washed well in boiling water for five minutes and dried well before making the face cover. Adding salt to this water is recommended, it said.

It also listed the procedures of making such homemade masks, asking to ensure it fits the face well and there are no gaps on the sides.

It urges people to wash hands thoroughly before wearing the face cover, switching to another fresh one as the face cover becomes damp or humid, and never reusing it after single use without cleaning it.

"Never share the face cover with anyone. Every member in a family should have separate face cover," the advisory stated.

India's COVID-19 case tally crossed the 11-lakh mark on Monday, while the total number of recovered patients increased to over seven lakh, according to Union health ministry data.

The death toll due to the disease rose to 27,497 with 681 fatalities reported in one day.

The ministry data updated at 8 am on Monday showed that a record single-day jump of 40,425 COVID-19 cases had taken the total number of cases to 11,18,043.

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coastaldigest.com news network
May 6,2020

Mangaluru, May 6: Three more coronavirus positive cases have been reported in Dakshina Kannada district. 

According to fresh bulletin of health and family welfare department, an 11-year-old girl and a 36-year-old woman from Boloor in Mangaluru and a 16-year-old girl from Bantwal tested positive for the covid-19. 

All of them are undergoing treatment at Wenlock Hospital. Their condition is said to be stable. 

With this the total number of cases in the district reached 28 including 22 residents of Dakshina Kannada, 4 from Kasaragod, 1 from Udupi and 1 from Uttara Kannada.

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