Badaun victim shouldn’t have gone out alone: NCW official

BAREILLY: “Women should avoid going out after dark,” a senior member of the National Commission for Women (NCW) suggested on Thursday afternoon in the village in UP’s Badaun where a 50-year-old anganwadi worker was allegedly gang-raped in a temple, brutalised and killed on Sunday night.

NCW’s Chandramukhi Devi

was there to meet family members of the dead woman.

Soon after the meeting, she said, “If women do (venture out), they should be accompanied by someone. I think if she (the victim) had not gone out in the evening, or had a child of the family accompanied her, it would not have happened.” She, however, also added, “There is clear negligence on the part of the police. They could have saved the woman’s life. The autopsy report suggests the extent of brutality.”

Devi’s comments drew sharp criticism from all quarters, prompting the NCW chief to issue a clarification. “I don’t know how and why the member (Chandramukhi Devi) said this but women have all the right to move as per their will whenever and wherever they want to. It’s society and state’s duty to make places safe for women,” Rekha Sharma said in a tweet. Sharma herself was involved in a row in October last year when she tweeted that she had discussed a “rise in love jihad cases” with Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari.

Meanwhile, there was no trace of the main accused, Satyanarayan, the priest of the village temple where the alleged crime took place. Several teams of UP police and a unit of the STF have been carrying out raids to arrest him. Two other accused are already in police net. Senior superintendent of police (SSP), Budaun, Sankalp Sharma, said, “We are hopeful we will be able to arrest the priest soon. We have also gathered evidence from the incident spot.”

The anganwadi worker had left home on Sunday evening to offer prayers at the village temple that she frequented. Some in the village said she was called there by the accused. A few hours later she was brought home, profusely bleeding, without clothes and in a serious condition, by three men in a car. The accused had then told the family that the victim had met with an accident. They sped away after leaving her there. The woman died barely a few moments later, giving no time to the shocked family to react or ask her questions.

Local police took another three days to file a rape case. The SHO was later suspended for the alleged laxity.