Bengaluru: Anekal gangrape victim has nowhere to go

With no one to take care of her, woman could face difficult times again after she is discharged from hospital

Image for representational purpose only

BENGALURU: With neither the government nor NGOs ready to take care of the Anekal gangrape victim, she may well land up back on the streets once she is discharged from the hospital after medical treatment.

Chairman of Expert Committee on Prevention of Sexual Violence against Women and Children V S Ugrappa has said that if the victim approaches the committee, the government can sanction `3 lakh to her as compensation. The amount is what rape victims are entitled to. She has suffered multiple fractures in her hands, hip and pelvis, and she might take months to recover completely.Ugrappa said that she can get a minimum of `25,000 and a maximum of `7 lakh for medical treatment.

However, there are no legal provisions for rehabilitation, he told Express.Karnataka State Women’s Commission chairperson Nagalakshmi Bai told Express that the victim can get shelter at any of the Santwana Centres across the state and in the meanwhile search for a job.“As per the notification issued by the Union government after the Nirbhaya case, the victim is entitled to medical treatment and a compensation of up to `3 lakh if she is a major. If she is a minor, it will be `4.5 lakh,” Ugrappa said.
“Similarly, there was a notification issued by the state government stating that despite such notifications no authority has been taking it seriously and giving any compensation to the victim,”he added.

“Another issue is that the district-level legal services authority has to decide the quantum of compensation. It will be headed by the district judge and the secretary will be the magistrate concerned. The DC is one of the members. The authority decides how much the victim will be paid. As of now, there is no provision for livelihood. If she approaches us, we can ask the deputy commissioner and the officials concerned to provide for something,” he said.

Parijatha, a member of the NGO Street Jagruthi Samiti, who was with the victim when she was first brought to the hospital for treatment, has also made it clear that the victim’s rehabilitation is the state’s responsibility.

Woman was forced to leave the premise a day before she was raped

Bengaluru: Anekal police, who are probing the gang rape of the Nepali girl, on Thursday questioned eight more suspects. So far, more than 30 suspects have been questioned but police have yet to achieve any breakthrough. A senior police officer said, “We learnt that some workers had come to clean the abandoned house a day before the incident. The men from Bannerghatta found the girl staying there and told her to leave. They also threw away her clothes.” “We showed the workers’ photos to her and she said they were not involved in the attack. She further said in her statement that the gang barged inside the house on the pretext of looking for a guava tree on the premise. They also gave her `200 to show it. When she came out of the house, they attacked her with a stone, pushed her into a corner and raped her,” the officer said. On November 23, the girl was raped by a gang, who came on bikes, at the abandoned building near Anekal.