A 23-year-old physiotherapy student was gangraped by five men and a juvenile in a moving private bus on December 16 last year. The accused dumped her and her male friend on the road — bloodied and without clothes after nearly an hour-long ordeal.
Since then, a whole unfortunate year has gone by, but the wounds of her parents refuse to heal. They are still green. The anguished parents of the December 16 gangrape victim live for the day her rapists will hang.
“She was the first-born who brought immense happiness to our lives. She was literally our bundle of joy. She was doing well… was our only ray of hope for future. But now there is nothing left, our life is empty and meaningless. Time has passed for us but like her injuries, our wounds are still fresh. We cannot ever come out of these,” Badri Singh Pandey, the victim’s father who works as a porter at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, told Gulf News here.
Seated in his modest two-bedroom house at Dwarka in west Delhi, Pandey, 54, says only the hanging of the culprits will give him satisfaction.
“Life has not changed much since last year. There is always someone crying at home. We have got a new house but there is a lot of sadness in our lives. Every time I talk about my daughter, I have tears in my eyes. I don’t know what to say. I think my daughter’s death speaks enough, not just for me but also for thousands of women across the country. We received the news of her rape, we saw her battle her injuries and we saw her die. But we felt happy when we saw the support she received from the nation and when the perpetrators were punished. She is not dead. She lives in us and in every woman who faces abuse. Her death is just the beginning. Her battle to live should not go in vain,” he said.
The victim battled for life for 13 days in New Delhi before being flown to Singapore where she died.
Recalling her last days, Pandey says: “Whenever she would come from Dehradun where she was studying, she would hide behind the door and surprise me. Her every action replays in my mind all the time. She is still alive for me. Time has just frozen for me. I feel she is hiding behind the door and will suddenly appear before me.”
He is satisfied with the September 13 verdict of the Saket court to hang four of the men.
“We are happy and one can indeed say that we have got justice, but we will get complete justice only the day all five criminals are hanged. We are happy that the laws in this country are changed after the incident but until the sentence is carried out, I dont think the justice is delivered. In cases of rape and murder, trials should be conducted as soon as possible and within the timeframe. This will help change people’s mindset,” he adds.
At the same time, Pandey is dejected because of the Juvenile Justice Board’s decision to keep the minor in a reform home for three years. The Delhi High Court is hearing the appeal of the four accused against the death sentence.
“People want the juvenile accused to be punished. But we will have to listen to what the court says. Crimes by juveniles are on the rise and the entire society pays a price for that. It is essential that we stop them right now. We have urged the Supreme Court to reconsider the juvenile court’s verdict. How can a rapist be let off just because he is a juvenile? Was he not involved in the horrendous act? Like his associates, he too should be hanged,” he says.
Pandey has only one regret — that he could not fulfil his daughter’s last wish.
“My daughter was thirsty and wanted to drink water but doctors would not allow me to give her anything to eat or drink. She kept requesting me, but I could not do it as her intestines were completely gone,” he says, trying to contain tears.
Pandey feels new anti-rape laws have improved. “We cannot definitely say that these crimes will never happen but in this particular case, the criminals crossed all the limits of barbarism. Earlier, only petty criminals were caught as the enforcement agencies did not do much to penalise the powerful. But now the law has changed, even powerful people are being caught and penalised,” he says.
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