Police gift free Taj trip to rape survivor

JAIPUR: She came to India from Japan to fulfil her dream of celebrating her 20th birthday at Taj Mahal in Agra. But the dream was dashed when she fell prey to tout’s ill intentions in Jaipur. Raped in Jaipur rurals’ Dudu area just three days before her birthday on February 11, she left for her home with horrifying memories.
The cops didn’t expect her to return, but when she returned a month later to record her statement in court, the senior police officers were so impressed that they fulfilled her birthday wish and arranged a VIP Taj Mahal tour for her, completely free of cost.
The girl got the real reward for her bravery on Friday after a court handed out the maximum punishment of 20 years to the main accused, Ajit Singh Chaudhary (24) for rape and the same term for his accomplices, Wahid and Abrar, for hatching a conspiracy to rape her.
“The biggest problem in cases involving foreigners is that they don’t return to record their statement. We were so desperate that we even offered to bear this girl’s travel expenses so that she could come to Jaipur and carry out legal formalities, like identifying the accused and record her statement in court,” said IG Jaipur range, DC Jain.
The officer said that to their surprise the Japanese embassy came forward and told the cops that they would bear all the expenses.
“The woman came to India on March 1, nearly 20 days after the incident and took part in the identification parade. She also recorded her statement in court. The court delivered the judgment within seven months and even handed out maximum punishment,” said IG Jain, who had supervised the investigation told TOI.
The police were aware about her wish to visit Taj Mahal. “It was quite a heart breaking story. A girl, who always had a dream to celebrate her birthday at Taj Mahal, somehow arranges money to fulfil it and comes to India but things take a drastic turn and she is raped,” said Jain.
He added that police wanted to give her an impression that not everything about India is wrong. “We arranged a VIP Taj Mahal tour for her. I have some funds at my discretion which I used. Besides, I took favours from some police officers in UP so that the girl could visit Taj Mahal,” said Jain.
Chaudhary befriended the Japanese girl at Jal Mahal on February 8. On the pretext of dropping her at her hotel, he took her to an isolated place near Dudu on the Jaipur-Ajmer highway and raped her. He later spoke to his friends on phone, who asked Chaudhary to bring the woman to a cooperative society where Wahid worked.
Chaudhary asked the Japanese tourist to come with him and threatened her with dire consequences if she refused. The police said that the friends would have also raped the woman, but she raised an alarm and on hearing her cries for help, some villagers rescued the woman before Chaudhary could take her to his friends. Police had used Section 376 D for the first time in the state. As per the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013, if a woman is raped by one person and it is found that some others were also intending to rape her with “common intention”, all of them are deemed to have committed the offence of rape. The minimum punishment for each person is 20 years which may extend to life imprisonment (for the remainder of that person's natural life). Under this section, Wahid and Abrar were also booked for rape.
The police arrested Chaudhary on February 13 and filed the chargesheet on February 21. The police submitted an application in the court requesting a fast trial so that the woman could get the justice quickly.