By Team FI
The Delhi Viklang Adhikar Manch, an affiliate of the National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD) has called for a protest meeting condemning the rape and murder of a young Nepalese disabled woman and the rising number of cases against disabled women in the country.
The protest is to be held in front of the Haryana Bhawan, New Delhi on February 13 at 10.00 a.m. The organisation appealed to the disabled community in Delhi “to join this protest and send out a clear warning that such incidents will not be tolerated.”
According to the information gathered by a six member team from the NPRD who visited the family of the young Nepalese woman, the victim had come to Rohtak to visit her sister. Though the family registered a missing persons report a few hours after she went missing, the local police did not investigate the matter, instead they asked the family to search for her on their own. The body of the young woman was found three days later.
“The nature of the injuries and violence inflicted on the woman reveals the perverted and dastardly mentality of the perpetrators,” reported the press statement put out by the NPRD. The statement also accused that “Had the police acted swiftly in trying to trace the missing lady immediately after the family lodged a missing person’s complaint, it was likely that this tragic incident could have been avoided.”
Protests were organised at Rohtak, Jind and Kaithal by the NRPD and its affiliates in Haryana. The Haryana police have arrested eight persons who have reportedly confessed to the crime.
Press statement from NPRD:
The Executive Committee of the National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD) condemns the brutal rape and murder of a woman with a mental disability in Rohtak district of Haryana. The badly mutilated body of the woman who went missing on February 1 was found two days back. Had the police acted swiftly in trying to trace the missing lady immediately after the family lodged a missing person’s complaint, it was likely that this tragic incident could have been avoided.
Apart from the heinous crime of rape, what is even more shocking is the nature of the injuries and violence inflicted on the woman, revealing the perverted and dastardly mentality of the perpetrators. Even while a crime of this nature on any woman is unpardonable, the fact that the woman had a mental disability made her more vulnerable, a condition that was taken advantage of by the criminals.
Volunteers of the Haryana affiliate of the NPRD, Haryana Viklang Adhikar Manch, joined the protests yesterday at Rohtak along with other organisations. They also independently held protests at Jind and Kaithal. A NPRD delegation will be meeting the victim’s family tomorrow to express solidarity in its fight for justice