Lucknow: Aashiana gang rape survivor Zahira (name changed) and All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) on Monday evening honoured commoners in South City and Rajni Khand who stood by her through the decade of pain.
It was exactly 11 years ago on this day, May 2, in 2005 that 13-year-old Zahira, daughter of a scrap dealer, was abducted, tortured and gang raped by six spoil brats. The prime accused in the case was convicted last month. Five others were convicted earlier.
Those honoured included Nagendra Tiwari who gave his time and energy circling to the courts and lawyers, and Abdul Rasheed, a vendor who was the first person to inform the police about the dreadful event.
Neena Avnish was also honoured for providing counselling and education to Zahira, Suman Pandey for teaching her to stitch, Meeta Paul who taught her English right from scratch, LLM student Pooja Rai who is currently teaching Zahira and Virendra Shukla for imparting basic computer skills to the girl.