New Delhi: A little over a week after the house of a Dalit gang rape survivor was set ablaze in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district, the lawyer fighting her case has alleged a threat to his life.
On Wednesday, the lawyer, Sanjeev Trivedi, wrote to Unnao district police chief Siddharth Kumar Meena, seeking security to pursue the sensitive case of the 14-year-old survivor.
The Dalit girl was gang-raped on 13 February, 2022, and gave birth to a son in September, according to the Unnao police.
In his complaint to the Superintendent of Police (SP), Trivedi alleged that a few unknown men turned up on 21 April and advised him to withdraw the case. “The men said that I should not fight the case. They also asked why I was risking my life. I don’t know these men. However, I can recognise them if they are shown to me,” he wrote to the Unnao SP.
Trivedi added that a few men trailed him to his chamber at Unnao district court and looked at him suspiciously.
This was not the first time he faced such a situation, as Trivedi claimed that on 24 April, when a few unknown men approached and questioned him at a Lucknow hospital where he had gone to meet the survivor’s family following the attack at her house.
“I was with policemen and medical staff when the incident took place. They are witnesses to the entire event. After these incidents, I am scared for myself. I am requesting security for my safety to pursue the case and ensure justice for the gang rape survivor,” Trivedi wrote in his letter.
The Unnao SP confirmed to ThePrint about receiving the complaint from the lawyer. “We are investigating the matter,” he added.
On the evening of 17 April, a mob set fire to the home of a minor Dalit girl in Lal Kheda village of Unnao district. The survivor alleged that two men who had raped her last year and were recently released on bail, were part of the mob.
After setting the house ablaze, the mob flung the survivor’s child and her three-month sister into the fire. The infants were first taken to the district hospital in Unnao but sent to Kanpur’s Hallet Hospital and then referred to the hospital in Lucknow.
Trivedi had alleged the attackers dumped both the infants in flames to erase the evidence of rape, as they were unsure of the survivor’s son.
The house was torched when the survivor’s father was not present there. He had been admitted to Unnao district hospital after a group of villagers — who allegedly sided with the five accused — attacked him on 13 April, the police said. This was when the family was returning from the court.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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