EXCLUSIVE
VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, Feb. 23: The Ranchi Police doesn’t seem to believe the story of an unwed mother (possibly a minor) that she was gang-raped by three persons resulting in her pregnancy. Leave talking about an FIR, neither the Ranchi police nor Ranchi District Child Welfare Committee (CWC) took note of the crime even if the victim is said to have told the court that she was gang-raped in her village. The CWC is a quasi-judicial body that under the Juvenile Justice Act is responsible for the care, protection, treatment, development, and rehabilitation of “children in need of care and protection.”
The Ranchi police are also not inclined to investigate that she could possibly be a minor when the crime was committed with her. However, three government documents—AADHAR card, ration card, Anganwadi birth register — confirm she was a minor and this is a fit case that ought to be investigated under provisions of the POCSO Act. Under the POCSO Act, even consensual sex with a minor is an offence.
Crime surfaced when police arrested a woman with a toddler at Birsa Munda Airport
The matter came to light when a case was registered on January 13 in the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) against the 36-year-old woman Nikhat Parween under sections 363 (kidnapping from lawful guardian), 370 (human trafficking), and Juvenile Justice Act sections 75 (Punishment for cruelty to the child) and 81 (sale and procurement of children for any purpose).
She was detained at Birsa Munda Airport while carrying her three-day-old child to Mumbai. As she was unable to produce any document to prove the toddler as her son, not even a flight ticket to mention toddler, she was arrested and an FIR was registered on the statement of the lady cop Nisha Anjali Toppo.
Further investigations disclosed that Nikhat Parween, who is childless, had procured the baby from this unwed mother who belongs to a village of Sonahatu in Ranchi. To avoid social stigma, she and her family wanted to get rid of the child. However, police claimed that Nikhat Parween had paid Rs 22000 to corroborate it a case of human trafficking.
Police ignored the victim’s possibility of being minor and gang-raped
But Ranchi police is sticking to the human trafficking angle and ignored that the victim was subjected to gang-rape leading to the birth of a child from her. The police have not yet looked into the rape angle.
Ranchi SP (City) Sourabh Kumar was asked whether any FIR or investigation carried into that allegation. “I precisely don’t remember that case. I will have to see the case file,” the SP said.
Victim told the court that she was gang-raped!
Nikhat Parween filed a bail application in a local court through her lawyer Syed Tanweer. She claimed that the mother of the child recorded her statement under CrPC 164 and her statement doesn’t support the prosecution theory that she (accused) is involved in human trafficking.
In her statement “she has stated that she is unmarried, sometimes ago mishappening caused to her, in the night she went on the call of nature where three persons forcibly committed wrong and resulting from that on 10.01.2022 she was blessed with a male child. She is an unmarried girl and as is unable to bring up the said infant,” the petition reads which is in possession of this correspondent.
Police claim she is 22 years old but documents speak otherwise
It is quite interesting that to ascertain her age Ranchi police is trusting the record of the private nursing home where she was admitted and gave birth to a baby. Here in the nursing home, she is shown as a 22 years old married woman.
Aruna Kumari who is a member of the CWC said that the CWC has not done anything for counseling and rehabilitation of that unwed mother since she is not a minor. “Police have said that she is not a minor hence the CWC did not interfere in this matter,” she said. But when confronted with documents she said that she would inquire about the matter from the police.
According to the AADHAR card, her year of birth is 2005. As per the ration card issued by the Jharkhand Government under the food security act, she is 16 years old. The Anganwadi record mentions her date of birth as August 3, 2003. There may be a slight mismatch in the government record but not even a single document suggests she was a major when the crime was committed.
Victim belongs to poor background
Due to poverty, she was dropped from school when she was a student of class six. She said that her parents were not there at home when she was raped when she went outside for the toilet. Her father sells fish and her mother is a daily wage labourer.
Out of shame, the victim did not reveal to her family about the incident. But as her bump developed the family took her to a hospital where her advanced stage pregnancy was disclosed.
They live in a kutcha house and own a small piece of land. The family is learnt to have sold a piece of land and livestock to get Rs 30, 000 for the delivery of the child at the private nursing home.
