Eve-teasers murder father for protecting daughters

In their one-room house at Premnagar slum in Amraiwadi, the girls are huddled together, numbed by the tragedy that has struck them. Their elder brother Rajesh arrived from Mumbai only yesterday. Their mother, Shantidevi, is still in a state of shock. She keeps staring at his picture, in between breaking into uncontrollable sobs. Rekha, the eldest daughter studying in class X, suddenly breaks the silence. “My father died trying to save our honour. The sad fact is the whole `basti’ watched him being clobbered to death but no one helped.”

Their ordeal goes back longer. An employee of a private security firm in the city, Santram, along with his wife Shantidevi and three daughters, used to live in the Premnagar slums. For the past few months, the girls had been subjected to constant harassment by two youths, who stay just across their house.

On Tuesday too, Santram returned home from work around 8.30 pm to find the youths teasing and harassing his daughters. The girls were studying in the verandah when the two brothers Dinesh Parsinath Thakore and Rajendra Parsinath Thakore, along with some friends, gathered there and began singing songs and whistling.

Family members said a quarrel took place after which Santram threatened the youths that he would call a cousin residing at Hatkeshwar to teach them a lesson.

Santram had reached the end of the lane, when the two brothers and a cousin rushed behind him with sticks and pipes and attacked him. Santram, whose skull had been smashed, was rushed to L G Hospital where he died on Wednesday morning.

“My father had tolerated this for long. He got enraged that night when they called him a `hijra’ who could do nothing even as they teased us,” said Rekha, adding that their problems began some months ago.

“When we attempted to study, they would blast the music system at full volume throughout the night,” she said. Her sister added, “They would bring their friends here and all would recite `shayris’, adding our names in between lines.”

“They had threatened my father earlier too when he had attempted to stop them from harassing us,” said the third daughter.

The two brothers, their father and cousin who have been named as accused are absconding. Their house, located exactly opposite that of Santram’s, is locked.

Santram had approached Amraiwadi police a few months ago after a quarrel between the two families. He had stated in his complaint that Dinesh and Rajendra were harassing his daughters and when he had objected, they had threatened him with dire consequences. However, no action was taken.

Though the Amraiwadi police station is less than half a kilometre from the place where Santram was murdered, the police arrived after the accused had fled.