RASANA: Deep inside Rasana, surrounded by a dense growth of trees on two flanks and a jungle where horses and cattle graze to its west, lies the
Baba Kali Veer mandir. It is here, a chargesheet by the J&K police has said, that the 8-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 single-storey structure has three doors on three sides and an equal number of locks. Dharampal Sharma, a member of one of the 12 Brahmin families — all related to each other (main accused Sanji Ram is one of them) — that live in its vicinity, said three villages have a key each to it. “Yahan teen gaon ke log mattha tekte hain (Here people from three villages come to pay obeisance),” he said.
“Baba Kali Veer is our kul devta. Why would someone commit such an unspeakable crime like that at the shrine? If people are most upset about anything, it is that a devasthan (god’s place) has been dragged into the murky controversy,” he added.
After the girl disappeared on January 10, waylaid by one of the accused while she was enquiring about the horses she would be with in the jungle nearby, 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.
Though no one has been coming to the mandir for days now, on Friday keeping vigil was Monika Sharma, the younger daughter of Sanji Ram. A pharmacy graduate, Monika, 27, said she has been at the temple since morning to talk to people inquiring about the incident and to tell them that her father is innocent.
“It is shameful that someone says an old man called his young son from his college in UP to rape a little girl. Can you even imagine what this means? I don’t know who will come to the temple anymore but I am here to say what I know to be the truth. My father is innocent. Let there be a fair inquiry,” said Monika.
She said that her other brother — they are four siblings, along with Vishal, an accused, and Madhu Bala who is on fast and protesting — is in the Navy and they have always been a family of “good people”.
To a TV crew that gave her a mike to make a statement, Monika said, “I don’t care what the BJP is saying or what the
PDP, NC or
Congress are doing. Everyone is playing politics with the incident. All I am saying is that I want justice for the girl. We call small girls devis here, worship them. Only then will I get justice for my father. But nobody wants to listen to us.”