Her pale face had nothing to tell, only an eagerness to meet her near and dear ones. She tried to force a smile, but the effects of the trauma she underwent were visible on her childish face.
‘She’ is the 17-year-old Bengali girl who survived a gang rape by four Keralites at Iiritty in Kannur in December 2011. “I hate them, I want them to be killed,” she says. The girl is yet to recover from the depression and mood swings, said officials of the ‘Nirbhaya’, a shelter home of Kerala Mahila Samakhya Society (KMSS).
The girl who speaks good Malayalam always prefers to be with the warden of the home which, whom she says, gives her a feeling of security. In the initial days the girl used to cry saying she wanted to see her mother, shelter home officials said. Answers to questions put to her are to the point.
“My home is at Haripur,” she says shaking her head and then keeping it down, as if she is not yet prepared to face ‘strangers’. Then she leans on to the warden with the ‘usual’ demand “I want to see Amma”.
“She is much better now. But living away from home makes her sad and she keeps on asking about her return. At home only her mother knows the cruelty she had to face,” said the warden of the home. Decks have been cleared for her return and she would leave for home on Thursday. The trial of the case was completed in April this year. The girl said that the only thing she loved in Kerala was the food. “At home our main dish is roti. Here I had many things to eat. Today I had appam and kadala for breakfast,” she said.
The girl, who studied up to the fifth standard came to Kerala in search of her lover, whom she believed was working in Virajpet in Karnataka. She decided to make the visit emboldened by the fact that her cousin was working here as a construction labourer. It was with him and another native of West Bengal that the girl went in search of her lover.
It was on the way that she was subjected to the brutality. The accused gave the trio a lift in their lorry and raped the girl after tying up the men. She could not go home after the incident.
At first she was admitted to a hospital in Kannur and later shifted to Kozhikode Medical College. She was housed at the shelter home of KMSS at Malappuram and brought to the Nirbhaya home later.
The compensation will be given to the girl on Wednesday through KMSS. On her return journey the girl will be accompanied by the KMSS staff.