Rajasthan rape, botched abortion: Victim’s teacher confesses to crime, say cops

The two, accused of repeatedly raping the teen girl over three or four months in Sikar’s Ajeetgarh, were arrested on September 19 “She suffered hypoxic brain damage, as oxygen to her brain was interrupted,” SMS Hospital superintendent Dr D S Meena said. “There was also severe blood loss. As of now, she remains in a vegetative state, and under observation.” The police said they are also investigating the role of the family for ostensibly trying to hide the matter.

Asked whether her daughter had told anyone about her ordeal, the woman said from behind her red veil, “We are simple farmers…she didn’t tell us anything. After she complained of stomach ache on August 25, Jagdish and Jagat allegedly convinced her family to visit a doctor in Shahpura, in Jaipur district, about 25 km from Ajeetgarh, “for an operation”. “The doctors took Rs 10,000 for the operation. They later discharged her and gave medicines for 15 days,” the victim’s brother told The Indian Express.

“On September 4, her condition deteriorated. We went to a doctor in Ajeetgarh and she was admitted (at a local hospital) until evening. Since her condition did not improve, doctors suggested we take her to Zanana government hospital in Jaipur,” he said.

Calling it a “botched” abortion, SMS Hospital superintendent Dr Meena said, “The foetus was not removed completely. Another operation had to be carried out at Zanana hospital. But she had lost a lot of blood due to carelessness of people involved in the period between Shahpura and Zanana.”

Circle Officer Singh said the police are verifying the documents and “will take suitable action against the hospital where the abortion was conducted”. About the probe, he said, “Much depends on what the girl says when she is better.” The doctors do not have an answer when that might be, if at all.

At the hospital, sitting on a stool next to her daughter’s bed, the victim’s mother recalled that she had dropped out about six years ago — after class VI — soon after her elder sister left school after class V. She rued her daughter’s decision to get to school after about four years. Both went to the same government school “She worked in the farm for about three or four years (after dropping out), when Jagdish approached us (sometime in early 2015 — the family isn’t certain exactly when) and suggested that she should continue her education,” the brother said.

“There was a gap in her education but we thought he was being helpful when he said he will arrange it easily — it was a private school, and she was being taken in at class X, without a year wasted.”

Sikar’s District Education Officer-II Dayal Singh Yadav said she was studying for free in the private school. “That itself should have raised red flags,” he said, “but they (family) perhaps didn’t guess the intentions of the school owner and teacher.”

Back in Sikar, Janta Bal Niketan has been shut down after protest by locals. “The school’s recognition has been suspended,” District Collector Naresh Kumar Thakral said. There were 339 students enrolled, and they are being rehabilitated in nearby government schools. Thakral said he has asked the district education officers to verify teachers and staff in private schools.

Education officer Yadav said there are 850 private schools under him in five of the district’s nine blocks, and verifying each tutor is a Herculean task. “Right now we are focusing on rehabilitating the children,” he said. Rajasthan Women Commission chief Suman Sharma, who met the victim this week, has assured that the hospital will not charge them for the treatment.