Image Courtesy:news18.com
In a disgusting and shocking statement that balmes the 50-year-old anganwadi worker who was gang-raped and murdered allegedly by a temple priest in the temple compound in Badaun, Uttar Pradesh, a National Commission for Women (NCW) member, has said the victim shouldn’t have gone out alone.
The NCW member Chandramukhi Devi was part of the two-member team sent by the Commission to meet the victim’s family and get details of the matter so justice was served. However, Devi, instead of empathising with the victim who was brutalised, raped and killed, decided to blame the dead woman. According to Devi, the “incident” would not have occurred if the 50-year-old victim had not “ventured out alone in the evening”. Devi said, the woman should have at least “taken a child along with her.”
BIZARRE: NCW member Chandramukhi lectures women on timings of them venturing out, says the Badaun incident wouldn’t have happened had the women not gone out alone in EVENING!
She was sent by NCW to visit the kin of victim in Badaun. pic.twitter.com/jUpltuBtea
— Prashant Kumar (@scribe_prashant) January 7, 2021
The National Commission for Women (NCW) had taken cognisance of the crime and written to state Director General of Police (DGP) Hitesh C Awasthy seeking his intervention in the case. The NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma said that a member of the commission will go to the spot to “investigate the matter, and meet the family,” she added that the NCW will “follow this case closely” and “will make sure that justice will be delivered.”
However, instead of investigating the crime, and asking that the police and state administration arrest all the accused and get justice for the victim and her family instead preached that, “A woman should not go out at odd hours under the ‘influence’ of somebody… I think if she had not gone out in the evening, or had some child of the family along with her, this could have been prevented”.
This victim blaming and victim shaming has been shoking and is being called out by many.
This is #rapeculture and #victimblaming straight from @NCWIndia member & former BJP legislator from Bihar. Locking women up in the name of safety is VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN, Madam. You’re blaming this woman who went to a temple, not the mahant & his men who gangraped & killed her! https://t.co/ewfVreRWAB
— Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) January 7, 2021
The temple priest, who has reportedly been accused of committing the heinous crime along with his associates is still absconding. Chandramukhi Devi has also said that she is “ not satisfied with the role of the police. Had timely action been taken, perhaps the life of the victim could have been saved”.
“The SSP has told me that the woman was found in an unconscious state and had she got treatment, her life could have been saved. The FIR was filed late and the post mortem examination was also done much later,” said Devi.
It is strange that she even spoke to the media and blamed the victim so brazenly, while adding that “the culprits had planned the action as they had called her to the temple through a phone call. Suspending a station officer is not enough. I have told the SSP that no one involved should be spared under pressure.” According to Devi, such brutal crimes against women are taking place in Uttar Pradesh despite campaigns like ‘beti bachao-beti padhao’ and ‘mission Shakti’ because “criminals have no fear of police.”
According to a News18 report, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath has asked the ADG (Zone), Bareilly, to submit a report. The report stated that the Badaun district magistrate has said the administration “would try to charge the accused under stringent provisions of the National Security Act (NSA).”
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