Kathua rape case: Temple sullying strikes raw nerve

RASANA: Deep inside

Rasana

, surrounded by a dense growth of trees and a jungle where horses and cattle graze, is the Baba Kali Veer mandir. It is here, a chargesheet by the J&K police has said, that an eight-year-old girl was kept sedated and repeatedly violated by men who wanted to teach the Bakarwals, the community of nomads to which she belonged, a lesson.


The temple, a flat, single-storey structure, has three doors and an equal number of locks. It is small enough for a man to cover the length in perhaps a dozen strides.

Dharampal Sharma, a member of one of the 12 Brahmin families — all related, and main accused

Sanji Ram

is one of them — that lives in the vicinity, said the three villages each have a key.

“People from three villages come to pay obeisance,” he said. “Baba Kali Veer is our kul devta (main god). Why would someone commit an unspeakable crime at the shrine? People are upset that a devasthan (god’s place) has been dragged into the controversy.”

The girl disappeared on January 10, waylaid by one of the accused while she was enquiring about her horses. He drugged her, allegedly raped her and then locked her in this temple. Three men then violated her repeatedly for four days before dumping her body in the woods. It was on January 17 that she was found.

On Friday, Monika Sharma, 27, the younger daughter of Sanji Ram and a pharmacology graduate, was at the temple to claim her father is innocent. “It is shameful that someone says an old man called his young son from college in UP to rape a little girl. My father is innocent. Let there be a fair inquiry,” she said.

The police has hinted that duplicates were made of the key, whose sole custodian was Sanji Ram, to show that two other villages also had access to the temple.

Few in the village have the patience to hear that out. “What nonsense,” said Tripta Devi, one of the residents of Rasana. “The windows have grilles but they are open, people come through the day to seek blessings. Why would someone hide a girl in such a place? What we object to more than anything is insinuation that such a dirty thing could have happened there in the presence of our kul devta. Everyone is afraid of god.”

It’s a refrain one hears from Rasana to Hiranagar, Jammu to Kathua. Tell them that places of worship have been sullied before and that high priests and powerful pontiffs have been brought to the ground, and they look away or glare back. It’s an issue that touches a raw nerve.

During the initial investigation, there was no mention, said sources, of the temple. It was a cowshed that was believed to be the place where the girl was kept captive. Later police said she was hidden under a table in the temple, heavily sedated and covered with rags.

To a TV crew Monika said, “I don’t care what BJP is saying or what PDP, NC or Congress are doing. Everyone is playing politics. I want justice for the girl. We call small girls devis here, worship them. Only then will I get justice for my father.”

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