Rape victim who ended life at Haryana police hqs lost mother 14 yrs ago in rape-murder case

Head Constable Balraj Singh and Constable Silk Ram were dismissed today and a special committee was formed to look into the case — the two are on the run. Meanwhile, outside the mortuary of the PGI, Chandigarh, Sarita’s ordeal continued. Her body lay waiting for hours for a post-mortem — carelessly tied in a white cloth stained with blood — in full public display, as authorities first hunted for doctors to conduct the autopsy and then an ambulance to carry her body.

Sarita’s husband Subhash Kumar and her two minor daughters looked on from under a tin shed. Tears streaming down his face, Subhash told The Indian Express: “The day before she committed suicide, we again got a call from the two cops, who asked us to take the case back or else they would kill me.”

He adds that Sarita left for Panchkula along with their two children yesterday without informing him. “I was also to accompany her, but when I woke up she had already left.”

The prolonged wait for a post-mortem just added to the family’s woes. First PGI authorities said they didn’t have doctors to spare for the autopsy, and police were told to take the body to the Government Hospital in Sector 16. However, a hearse or ambulance couldn’t be arranged. Finally a Tata Sumo was called, but after several efforts to fit the body into the vehicle, the officials gave up and again kept it on the road. Then the Sector 16 hospital said most of its doctors were on vacation. Finally, a panel of doctors, one each from the PGI, the Sector 16 hospital and the Government Hospital Sector 32, was assembled for the post-mortem.

In Rohtak, there is no trace of the two officers who allegedly raped Sarita on April 10, in one of the numerous rooms at the office of the ambitiously named Central Investigation Authority or CIA. Both Head Constable Balraj and Constable Silk Ram belong to this unit, set up to investigate special crimes and major murders and comprising 25 police officers, with one inspector holding charge.

While four teams of Rohtak Police are now hunting for Balraj and Silk Ram, the inspector who was in-charge at the time of the rape, Ram Kumar, was transferred a week back.

In her FIR, Sarita charged Balraj and Silk Ram with implicating her husband in a motorcycle theft case dating back to October 2007, asking her for “sexual favours” for his release, and raping her when she refused. According to her, Balraj called her on April 10 evening to CIA (1st) office from her Saini Anand Pura residence. Earlier in the day, her husband had been produced before a court in Jhajjar and handed over to the Beri police, but Sarita didn’t know that.

She added that she was raped in the first room at the entrance of the CIA office, and that though five-six more officers were present in the building at the time, they apparently didn’t realise what was happening.

Subhash claimed today that he was picked up on April 9, and that Balraj and Silk Ram asked Sarita to pay Rs 6,000 to get him released. “But as I am the only earning member of the family, she could not arrange for the money,” he told The Indian Express.

The next evening, according to him, they called Sarita to sign the papers for his release. “She was badly beaten up before being raped by the two policemen.”

The FIR was lodged on May 31, after DSP City Dhiraj Setia intervened. Sarita initially only named Balraj, adding Silk Ram’s name after an identification parade two days later.

Incidentally, Rohtak SP Hanif Qureshi admits that the two were putting pressure on Sarita to withdraw the rape case. “Their statements were also taken, and they told us that she wanted to create pressure against the police with such allegations,” he told The Indian Express. Qureshi denied that the officials had demanded bribe from Sarita for releasing her husband.

What the police are questioning is why Sarita only registered a complaint two months later, on May 29. “She did not have a satisfactory answer as to why she reported the matter so late,” says Qureshi.

In their early 30s, Balraj and Silkram were deployed in the CIA six months ago. Balraj, a native of Katwal village (Sonepat), has been in the Haryana police for 17 years and Silk Ram for 14 years. Both are married and have children.

Officers at the CIA insist the charges against the two are false. “It is not possible that our colleagues did this in a room at the office. Eight to 10 persons are always present here. Why did she not inform anybody for so long, or even her husband when she used to go to meet him in jail?” says Bhim Singh, the present in-charge of the CIA.

There are hints that the alleged rape had led to alienation between Sarita and Subhash, who had a love marriage six years ago. In her suicide note, the words “now my husband is also leaving me” have been scratched out, though they are legible enough.

Subhash, who works as a bus conductor with a private company, denies this, pointing out that even the charge of theft against him was never proved. He adds that Sarita loved him so much that she couldn’t take the harassment he was put through.

“She was worried throughout the last two months that the police would kill me. When I was in police custody, she came to meet me twice, but all she did was cry. I thought she was sad because I was in jail. But the day I was bailed out, she told me she had been raped,” Subhash adds.

The couple then met the SP, Rohtak, who marked the case to DSP (Headquarters) Manbir Sheoran. “When he also said that the case may get cancelled, Sarita realised that she would never get justice,” Subhash says.

“We ran from pillar to post to get justice, but no one came to our rescue,” he adds. “Law doesn’t work for the poor and downtrodden like us.”

(with Nainu Rohtaki in Panchkula)