To save the boys, villagers go to the Panchayat

Noida is scared and people of Garhi Chowkhandi are very scared. How else can one one explain the unjustified logic put forward by them in a panchayat to help save the ten boys, who have been accused of raping an MBA student. A day after the news of the involvement of the ten boys from Garhi Chowkhandi village in the gang-rape spread like wide fire, the villagers were ready to accept the truth and even shoot their boys if they were found guilty. But two days later, in a flip-flop that will put politicians to shame, they are now ready to use any means to save the rapists.
A panchayat on Thursday at the village was attended by the village elders and the family members of the arrested boys. The mother of one of the arrested rapists said, “My son is innocent. He is being framed. Infact, when the crime took place he was with his wife in the village. For proof, you all can conduct a medical examination on my daughter-in-law.” Many such defensive statements were made by the entire villagers.
In the panchayat it was declared that on Friday a written complaint would be submitted to the District magistrate asking for judicial probe in the matter. Also, they demanded that action be taken against the victim’s friend Amit and his father for lodging a false FIR in the case. The panchayat stated that if their plea was rejected they would protest.
Ironically, while the villagers are voicing their support to the accused boys, the sixth accused Little, who was produced in the court on Thursday, brazenly accepted the crime he committed. He said, “We found the girl and the boy in an objectionable position. As they were alone, we took advantage and took turns raping the girl.” Like the other five who were arrested, Little, too, was sent to 14 day judicial custody.

Do you think when the village said it would shoot the boys, they were bluffing to appease the authorities?

‘We’ll shoot them if they are rapists!’

While the whole country is demanding the harshest punishment possible for the 10 accused in the gang-rape of an MBA student in Noida, the family members of the accused and village elders say if the boys are guilty, they themselves will shoot each one of them. Till Wednesday night, the police had arrested six boys. Four are absconding.
“If there is any truth in the accusations, we will shoot each one of them,” says Bharat Yadav, a village elder. Till the boys are proved guilty, the entire village is standing behind all ten. The villagers including the parents of the accused are still not willing to believe that their sons could commit such a heinous crime. And so sure are they of their wayward sons’ innocence that they are willing to bite the bullet for them.
The shock and disbelief that descended on the village with the swooping Noida cops on Tuesday morning has still not settled down. Giani, the father of Sanjay, one of the accused boys, shooed us away when we tried to talk to him. On seeing us, another man accompanying him immediately took off in a Swift. We thought he was going to gather a crowd, but were relieved to find him returning with the village elders and a former village head, Bharat Yadav.
“We have seen these boys since they were babies. It is not possible that they could have done something like this,” says everyone. But they admit that there was a fight with the boy. “Our boys were on their way to the village and spotted the car near Sector 123 at Pushta Pathala Khanjarpur. They say that the couple was in an objectionable position and they objected to this. A brawl ensued. Our boys may have hit the boy, but they could not have raped the girl,” says Bharat Yadav. He will find it difficult to argue with forensic evidence.
“Everyone wants to know the truth. More than 250 cops came on Tuesday and took away the boys without any explanation. No one knew what was happening. Where were the boys being taken or why? Even after that when we tried to meet them we were not allowed. We went to the police station where the boys were kept but they were not allowed to meet their son. Even the parents want the truth to be out. If their sons have done something wrong they should be punished but for that a proper procedure should be followed and a balanced approach is necessary which the police are not ready to do,” said one of the parents.
They, however, have no explanation for the fact that one of the accused boys has made a statement before television cameras not only confessing to his crime but also giving the entire list of names of the nine others involved.

Do you think society as a whole can play a constructive role in helping the girl get justice and set a precedent?

Bastards!

10 men take turns to rape MBA student inside car in Noida. Five arrested, others absconding …
Dad tells the story of how his son, Amit, was assaulted and his friend raped

It was around 9 pm on Monday. I had been worried sick about my son. He is a responsible boy and generally returns from his MBA classes around 7 pm. If he is going to be late, he always informs us. But on Monday he was late and was not even answering his cell phone.
I had called up all his friends and was wondering what to do next when he walked into my office with a girl. Both appeared to have been injured.
My first thought was maybe he has been in an accident. But when he told me what had happened, I was shocked and enraged.
The girl is our neighbour and also goes to the same B-school as my son. Since there are a number of kids the same age in our colony who go to Noida to study, they all use a car pool. On Monday, the girl had brought her Wagon R and my son had left with her.
After the classes ended, they went to the Great India Place in Sector 18 to shop and around 5 pm, they decided to return. They had driven for about half-a-kilometre when they noticed two motorcycles following them. There were four men on the bikes.
All of a sudden, these men surrounded the car and forced my son to stop. Before he could realise what was happening, they had hit him with a brick, pushed him to the passenger’s seat and got behind the wheel. The others had come towards the girl’s side and forced her into the backseat before getting in with her. While one of the boys was driving, the other two in the back seat began assaulting her. They also kept hitting my son. The fourth man kept pace with the car on his bike. They left the second bike at the spot.
For about an hour, they kept driving around, perhaps looking for a dark and lonely spot. As the sun set and it became darker, they became bolder. They took turns raping the girl in the moving car.
What is even more horrifying is that they even called up some other friends and asked them to join in. By the time the girl’s ordeal ended, she had been assaulted by 10 men.
They drove the car to a secluded dark and deserted place in Sector-71, where about 10 persons raped the girl one by one.
After raping the girl, all ten boys abandoned them in a deserted place. But before they could escape, my son managed to note the number of one of the bikes. But he could not call me or anyone else for help because before escaping, the rapists snatched his mobile phone, wrist watch and wallet.
I called the girl’s family members to my office and we went to the police station in Noida’s Sector-39 and reported the incident.
The Noida police immediately swung into action and with the help of the motorbike number my son gave them, they raided several premises of the accused. By the end of the day, all the accused persons had been apprehended.
My son has a fractured elbow apart from several other injuries. He is in hospital where the doctors have advised bed-rest. He is having severe pain in the abdomen. The girl’s condition is worse. She is also in hospital.
(As told to Pradip R. Sagar)

Should gangrape be punished with a life sentence or death?