Haryana : Congress President Sonia Gandhi today visited the family of a Dalit teenaged girl, who immolated herself after being allegedly gang-raped in Jind district of Haryana on Saturday.
The UPA Chairperson arrived in Jind at about 10 AM and went straight to meet the victim’s family. She was accompanied by Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Union Minister Kumari Selja and Haryana Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala.
The Haryana Government has drawn flak from all quarters, particularly the opposition, for its alleged failure to prevent incidents of crime against Dalits and women.The 16-year-old girl had sprinkled kerosene and immolated herself after allegedly being gang-raped by two youths in Narwana sub-division of the district.
The victim had breathed her last at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences at Rohtak, where she was rushed to from Narwana Civil hospital with 90 per cent burn injuries.
Police has arrested the victim’s neighbour Pradeep, the main accused who had dragged the victim to his house, and his accomplice Naveen, who was also charged with raping the girl.
Two more people, including Pradeep’s sister-in-law, have also been arrested in the case.The Jind incident came close on the heels of a series of horrific crimes against women in Haryana during the past one month, and third in Jind alone.
The rattled Haryana government had on Thursday formed a three-member committee at district levels to investigate, monitor and ensure speedy prosecution of such crimes.The Jind rape incident was the 12th such incident within a span of about a month in Haryana.
Earlier, a rape took place in Hisar on September 9, where a Dalit teenaged girl was gang-raped in Dabra village. After that a married woman was gang-raped in a Jind village, a teenage girl was gang-raped by some youths in Gohana in Sonepat district while another teenaged girl was raped in a moving jeep in Bhiwani district.
Haryana’s main opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) had lashed out at the Hooda government, alleging that ever since it had come to power in year 2005, “the number of rape cases have witnessed a sharp increase”.