TIA NEWS
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM/
A rape victim in Kerala has alleged that she was forced to withdraw her complaint because of humiliation by the police. Woman who was allegedly gang-raped by her husband’s friends came out in public with her story today and said she was forced to withdraw her complaint because of humiliation by the police. “Which one of them gave you the greatest pleasure?” she was allegedly asked by a police officer.
“Far more than rape, it was the police threats and humiliation that was unbearable,” the 32-year-old woman said in Thiruvananthapuram, speaking to reporters with her husband by her side, both their faces covered.
The woman first shared her story with prominent dubbing artiste and activist Bhagya Lakshmi, whose Facebook post has been widely circulated and has drawn a response from Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. She called the artiste after watching her in a TV discussion recently.
“She told me it’s fortunate that Jisha and Soumya died or they would have to face repeated humiliation,” Ms Bhagya Lakshmi wrote in her post.
The Chief Minister and Kerala police chief are expected to meet the woman today.
Two years ago, the woman said, when her husband was away, four of his friends came to her house in Thrissur, around 280 km from Thiruvananthapuram, and claimed he was in hospital. She went with them, but they allegedly drove her somewhere outside the city.
The woman alleged that the men took turns to rape her. She has named them; one is allegedly a senior politician.
After two years, she confided in her husband, who urged her in August to go to the police. “I was called to the police station for four days continuously and made to sit there from morning to evening. I was asked humiliating questions,” the woman said.
Bhagya Lakshmi’s FB post on rape victim goes viral
Kozhikode: In a horrific revelation, dubbing artist Bhagya Lakshmi took to Facebook to narrate about her meeting with a gang-rape victim from Thrissur, aged between 35-40 years.
Bhagya Lakshmi began her Facebook post saying that “this might look like a cinema story. But it isn’t.” In her Facebook post, she says how a desperate phone call from a woman one night she had received.
“She was accompanied by her husband, who stepped out saying his wife shall speak to me freely without his presence. Amidst continuous sobs, she told me how four of her husband’s friends-whom she had considered as her own brothers-raped her one after the other two years ago. They had threatened her not to reveal the incident, lest they would release video footage of the rape,” said Bhagya Lakshmi.
“She told me that Nirbhaya, Soumya and Jisha were fortunate to have died post being raped. Otherwise, they would have had to go through several rounds of mental rape, just like her,” she goes on her post.
Thanks to the social networking site, the Chief Minister’s office has intervened into the issue. Prabha Varma, special secretary to the Chief Minister, said action would be taken in the incident.