Named only 2 accused: Tikri rape victim’s dad

ROHTAK/BATHINDA: Pressure is building against farm unions and their leaders to explain the delay in filing of an FIR against the men accused of sexual harassment by a 25-year-old activist, who later died of Covid-19.
The victim’s father on Monday claimed that he had complained against two persons but the police had added names of four others in the FIR. Explaining the delay in filing a police complaint, he said his daughter’s last wish that her personal tragedy should not in any way harm the farmers’ movement had put him in a dilemma as to whether to report the matter to the police. Even Sanyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) leaders had waited for him to make a decision, he said.
The Bahadurgarh Police have booked Anil Malik, Anup Singh, Ankush Sangwan, Jagdish Brar, along with two women activists, Kavita and Yogita, who had pitched tents at Tikri border under the banner of Kisan Social Army, for gang rape and abduction.
The statement of the victim, in form of a video recording, that was submitted to Haryana police mentions only one name. The case of gang rape and abduction was registered at Bahadurgarh police station on Saturday evening after her father submitted a written complaint against Anil Malik and Anup Singh.
In a virtual conference organized by SKM on Monday evening, the victim’s father said the two women named as accused had actually tried to help his daughter. After his daughter had complained of sexual harassment, two of the accused Anil Malik and Anup Singh had tried to kidnap her on April 25 but farm leader Yogendra Yadav had managed to rescue her by calling her up and convincing her abductors to bring her back.
Yogita, who has been named in the FIR, told TOI that the victim had told her about Anil Malik sexually assaulting her on the train and trying to chase her even in Delhi.
‘Action needed or protest will be branded as place unfit for women’
I immediately shifted the victim, who was living in the accused’s tent at Tikri border to another tent at pillar number 774. I also brought the matter to the notice of two prominent leaders at Tikri on April 18 but they did not take it up, maybe because they had good relations with the main accused,” she said.
Yogita recorded a video of the victim’s statement and shared the 4.25-minute clip with her father as evidence. “When I tried to raise the storm, I was separated from her. Later I learned that she died of Covid in hospital on April 30,” Yogita told TOI.
SKM leaders Yogendra Yadav, Joginder Singh Ugrahan, Darshan Pal, Hanan Mollah and Yudhvir Singh said the senior Morcha leadership had conveyed to the victim’s father that it was totally his decision on how toproceed or to seekpolice help. “Now that the police complaint has been made,” the Morcha leaders said they would ensure that the guilty are punished and such incidents are not repeated.
“The incident has given a bad name to the farmers’ protest. Strong steps need to be taken before the protest gets branded as a place not fit or safe for women, especially those from states other than Punjab and Haryana. Going by the presence of a large number of women at protest sites, the movement has become pan-Indian now,” said a farmer leader. According to some insiders, the victim’s Covid status was another factor in the delay in taking action in the matter. Her safety became a priority, they said. But she succumbed to the virus on April 30.
BKU (Ekta Dakaunda) vice-president Manjit Singh Dhaner, who waged a war against the rape and killing of a teenage girl in Punjab in the 1980s-90s, said, “When wegot to know about the woman being Covid positive, our priority wastosaveher,which we could not. After her death, we got to know about sexual harassment and we also had to return to Punjab to take up our prior engagements. But we asked the leadership to investigate the case and take appropriate action in consultation with the girl’s father, who was not immediately clear on what action he wanted to take. Thus, the delay.” Farm leader Rajinder Singh Deep Singh Wala said the victim’s father had refused to get her postmortem done and was not very clear about filing a police complaint.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)